The recent incident in Dantewada wherein the Maoists killed 76 CRPF jawans has triggered a heated debate about the establishment on one side and the Naxalites on the other. One section calls for strong action against the Naxalites, even calling them terrorists and urging the use of armed forces against them, while others defend the action of the Naxalites to the extent of justifying it.
Hours and hours have been spent on the debate by many people, be it senior politicians , journalists or political analysts. I doubt if any one of them has ever been to Jagdalpur , leave alone Dantewada or Dandakarnya , which has almost come under the control of the Maoists. Both sides, I feel, are quite off the mark.
Maoists, at the most, are misguided ideologues who have lost faith in the system and feel that the only way to deliver is through the barrel of a gun. But the sheen of that political ideology appears to be wearing off when we see traders, forest contractors, industrialists and mining companies carrying on their business without a problem — in fact, quite merrily — in the Naxalite dominated areas.
The Maoists, simply, are collecting protection fees. Sometimes, we hear from Maoists sympathisers , who suspect that the real intent of the state's strong action against Maoists is to facilitate the mining giants that have signed MoUs with the state. But do we have an instance where Maoists have stopped mining operations in affected areas or have taken up the cause of the tribals for higher wages or better living and working conditions for them?
If they have done so sometimes, the issue has been resolved amicably after some deal was struck. Actually, the Maoists are thriving on collecting dues from forest and civil contractors, the mining industry and other industries in the affected zone. I am told that every state government employee posted in the affected area has to give a certain percentage of his pay to them.
Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5799305.cms
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