Security Challenges Infront of NATION

“We have stepped into an extremely dangerous and paradoxical time. We have built ourselves a political fine democracy but in society and economy there is no democracy and there is no equality. The tension between the inequality in the social and economic terms can explode our political democracy.”

-          Primary architect of Indian Constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in his speech after handing over the draft constitution in Parliament

And today almost 63 years after his speech, we can find he got it absolutely correct. The most dangerous threat to the internal security of India is the fastest growing inequality in the social and economic fields. The country is facing the consequences in the form of poverty, hunger, malnutrition, Naxalism and so on. The challenges are interconnected to each other.

Below are the major challenges to the internal security of India:

   1.      Fastest growing inequality in income between the rich and the poor

a.       The inequality in income between the rich and the poor is increasing at fastest rate since 1991 i.e., the year of liberalization of India.

b.      The benefits of globalization are not percolated to the lower strata of Indian society and thus they are ignored from the developmental stream.

c.       This resulted into extreme poverty, hunger, malnutrition, farmer suicides and so on.

Measures to be taken:

-          To bridge the gap between rich and poor Government has to focus on the Directive Principles of State Policy (DSPS).

-          The Directive Principles of State Policy are guidelines to the central and state governments of India, to be kept in mind while framing laws and policies. These provisions, contained in Part IV of the Constitution of India, are not enforceable by any court, but the principles laid down therein are considered fundamental in the governance of the country, making it the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws to establish a just society in the country.

-          Government scheme to the poor should reach to the last hand

-          Self-employment like SHG(Self Help Groups) should be generated in rural and urban areas

-          The most vital thing to reduce the inequality in income in the society is political will of the politicians

   2.      Maoist/Naxalites insurgency in the heart of India

a.       The deprived and the marginalized sections of the society, unable to survive in the present system, get alienated from the growth of the country. The militant and extremist forces thrive in this environment.

b.      The most prominent among the groups, that have mushroomed in the recent years, are the People’s War Group (PWG) and the Marxist Communist Centre (MCC)

c.       The Naxalites have now been going after the innocent civilians after the Government security forces. Extortion is the only way of funding to Naxals.

Measures to be taken:

-          Poverty and livelihood issues should be resolved

-          Infrastructure in the Naxal affected areas must be improved

-          The intelligence network has to be strengthened significantly

-          The issue of Naxalitescan be resolved by the only way of peaceful talk to Naxal leaders since this kind of insurgency is caused due to the ignorance of government towards these forest dwellers and seizing their lands for industrialization.

   3.      Fundamentalist forces (Terrorism):

a.       This is the most serious threat to the India’s internal security

b.      The organizations, like Al Qaida, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, are encouraging the so-called ‘Jehadis’ to enter India from outside

c.       The break-up of the Indian Union continues to be the main goal of Pakistan’s domestic and foreign policy

d.      Easy availability of deadly weapons with the subversive groups operating in India has created new dangers for India’s security.

Measures undertaken by Government:

-          Sophisticated Counter-Terror Technology (CCTV cameras)

-          Intelligence agencies, state police, customs, border security, cyber and public health departments to counter terror attacks.

-          The state’s counter-terror mechanism must envision the creation of Special Forces meant specifically for the purpose of averting terror networks in India. These Special Forces must be established in vulnerable states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan Manipur and Assam

-          The state’s land and coastal border security must be strengthened given the fact that terror attacks have been conducted and planned in the neighboring states.

-          Cyber specialization should be made a part of the counter-terror mechanism towards addressing hacking issues, tracing terror links in the virtual world, locating the computers, and countries where this transnational nature of terrorism originates, etc.

-          India should establish a Federal Counter-Terrorism Mechanism, which will integrate with above mentioned institution.

   4.      Environmental degradation at rapid pace

a.       The Indian rivers on whose banks the Indian civilization was once flourished are on the verge of diminishing their beauties. They are highly degraded and the water is polluted due to discharge of the sewages from the industries.

b.      The deforestation is taking place at rapid pace since Liberalization of the country in 1991. Deforestation became the serious threat to so many vulnerable species of flora and fauna.

Measures taken by the Government:

-          Increased the area of Protected Area Networks with the increase in wildlife sanctuaries and National Parks.

-          Enacted Project Tiger and Project Elephant to save these wild-lives  from poaching

-          Central Zoo Authority (CZA) provides assistance to various zoos for better upkeep and health facilities to the zoo animals.

   5.      Illegal immigration to the north-east

a.       Estimates of the total population of illegal immigrants in Nagaland or elsewhere in India is problematic due to the clandestine nature of the immigrants. Illegal immigration is getting recognized as one of the growing concerns in tribal-dominated Nagaland.

b.      Most of the alleged illegal immigrants usually possess fraudulent voter identity cards, driving licenses and ration cards. This made the task of investigation extremely difficult.

Constraints in preventing the illegal immigration:

·         Inadequate policing along the border

·         Demographic dynamics

·         Indifferent attitude of Bangladesh

·         Lack of political will

·         Communal politics

·         Corruption

Impact of Illegal migration:

·         Security impact

·         Communal polarization

·         Demographic impact

·         Political impact

   6.      Fragile, unstable neighbors

a.       Pakistan – failed state

b.      China – Border issues

c.       Sri-Lanka – Had a brutal civil war that does not address the underlying problems

d.      Bangladesh – fragile democracy, so many times military has overtaken the government

e.       Nepal – Maoist insurgency, democratic process is fragile.

   7.      Armed “Sena” on caste and ethnic lines

a.       Affected the police and administration

b.      Loss of public confidence in the capacity of the state to protect their life and property is the primary cause of this dangerous development

c.       In the Border States these movements become secessionist because of the support they receive from the hostile neighboring states.

   8.      Communal forces

a.       The communal forces are the major challenge which wants to undermine the democratic secular fabric of the society.

b.      Government needs to isolate such extremist forces which disturb the unity of the nation and its people.

c.       The recent Muzaffarnagar riot is one of the example how communal forces play the bloody game of division in the society.

Measures to be taken:

There is need to strengthen and revitalize local "peace communities" in rural areas which have representatives from different communities and have in the past been effective in containing and resolving conflicts.

 

Measures to be taken at broader level

     1.      The Internal security issues should not be treated as merely law and order problems.

     2.      There should be work on social, political and economic levels.

  Source Via- envfor.nic.in

P. Sainath  articles on The Hindu

Naxalism – A Pseudo Problem

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action;

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

                                                                                              - Rabindranath Tagore

The attack in southern Chhattisgarh this past May 25 and other previous struggles between the Naxalites and the government forced me to revive this verses which present a state of intense sorrow. Naxalism is stated as national problem, internal threat, obstacle for development, agitator of peace, many more words are there but it is more important to know that what are the parameters, situations led to such growing state that it is incorrigible. 

The incidents followed by each other played a vital role to setup and to strengthen the Naxalism in India. Here are some details:-

1948	Around 2500 villages in the south were organized into ‘Communes’ as a part of a movement which came to be known as Telangana Struggle. This ‘Indian revolution’ follows the Chinese path of people’s war. This revolutionary strategy was based on Mao Tsetung’s new democracy
1964 -1967	Communist Party of India(Marxist)(CPI-M) splits from united Communist Party of India(CPI) and decides to participate in election postponing armed struggle Communist leader Charu Majumdar formed the basis of naxalite movement based on Marx-Lenin-Mao thoughts CPI-M forms a coalition government in West Bengal that created division in the party as Charu Majumdar accused for betraying the revolution
May,1967(Naxalbari Uprising)	Charu Majumdar with help of Kanu Sanyal, Jangal Santhal and rebel cadres initiated a violent uprising in the small village “Naxalbari” in West Bengal against landlord’s men over a land dispute. The CPI-M led United Front Government cracked down on the uprising ,but this Naxalism ideology soon spread over many states and Comrades from TamilNadu,Kerala,Uttar Pradesh,Bihar,Kerala,Orrisa,Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal met and set up All India Coordination Committee of Revolutionaries(AICCR) in the CPI(M)
1968-2000	AICCR renamed All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR). After it’s dissolution it became CPI (ML). There were many armed clash between CPI(M) and CPI(ML).Many parties formed based on maoist thinking and they have tried to succeed politically

  

Until the 1990s the Naxalites were a marginal presence in Indian politics. But in that decade they began working more closely with the tribal communities of the Indian heartland. About 80 million Indians are officially recognized as “tribal”; of these, some 15 million live in the northeast. It is among the 65 million tribals of the heartland that the Maoists have found a most receptive audience. There are following reasons which has stirred up the flame of Naxalism

·         Economically the tribals are the most deeply disadvantaged segment of Indian society. As few as 23 percent of them are literate; as many as 50 percent live under the poverty line. The state fails to provide them with adequate education, healthcare or sanitation; more actively, it works to dispossess them of their land and resources

·         The naxals enjoy immense support among the lower strata of the society in which they known as the Red corridor, a collection of states with active Naxalism. The tribals consider the Maoists as their friends for them these rebels who have stood by them when police beat them, the political parties are with the Salwa Judum (An anti-Naxalite movement in Chhattisgarh),the courts do not give them a hearing, the media does not care about them.

·         The original struggle was against feudal landlords and landownership, but the new struggle is against state domination, modernization and development which parallels the rise of India as a strong economy propelled by capitalism and liberal economic gains

·         Politically the tribals are very poorly represented in the democratic process. In fact, compared with India’s other subaltern groups, such as the Dalits and the Muslims, they are well nigh invisible. Dalits have their own, sometimes very successful, political parties; the Muslims have always constituted a crucial vote bank for the dominant Congress Party.

·         The main cause of Naxalism is the glaring inequality in rural India based on unequal distribution of land. Equitable distribution of surplus vested land for cultivation purpose is the main demand of the Naxalites. This is also the centre point of the land reform measures.

·         Charu Majumdar, the pioneer of the Naxalite movement had said: “China’s Chairman is our Chairman and China’s path is our path”. While India is sensitized about the ongoing proxy war by Pakistan, there is very little or no consciousness that Maoism or Naxalism is actually a proxy war by China being waged against India for last five decades.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, called Maoist insurrection, “the single biggest internal-security challenge”. The solution needs to be multidimensional and calls for a synergy between the central governments and the states. The socio-economic alienation and the dissatisfaction with the widening economic and political inequality will not be solved by military force alone, which seems to be the main instrument employed by the government. In spite of many reasons that have continued to grow Naxalism but following considerable steps will help to demolish the some of root causes of it.

Socio-economic development:-

As the Naxalites are fuelled by discontent from the marginalized and the poor, a larger percentage of the national budget must be allocated to addressing the needs of these regions. More of the national expenditure needs to be focused on developing these poorer regions through initiatives regarding health, education, social welfare and rural and urban development.

Government service delivery should be improved in these tribal areas. Both state and government must ensure that things such as statutory minimum wages, access to land and water sources initiatives are implemented. If the social needs of these marginalized people are addressed, there will be no discontent to fuel the Naxalite’s movements.

Discussion:-

The government should initiate sincere dialogue with these marginalized groups, the Naxalites and state leaders. By communicating and starting a dialogue between these stakeholders, these groups will feel that they being listened to. By opening dialogue, the government can give opportunity for the rebels to join the mainstream by showing them that solutions can be created together with the government, by being part of the political system in a legitimate way.  They no longer need to resort to violence to get the state’s attention.

Military:-

Currently, the main instrument employed by the government to address the Naxalite threat is the increasing use of the military. While some military force is still needed to combat against the Maoist guerrillas, it should not be the only solution. By only addressing the issue by brute force, government risks alienating civilians who are caught in the middle.

So by looking into all aspects of Naxalism, I consider it is a Pseudo problem and can be tackled thru efficient steps to maintain peace.

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life” - Virginia Woolf

Source via - thehindu.com/‎

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/‎

wikipedia.org