Fight Naxals intelligently
The firepower available to Naxalites, who could bring down an IAF Mi-17 helicopter by hitting its fuel tank 15 times in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district last week, clearly shows how official India is falling further behind in its battle against subversive elements. Naxals/Maoists, long recognised as India’s biggest internal security threat, who have even been compared to the NaVi of Avatar fame, have instilled such fear in local populations that their writ runs large in vast tracts of mineral-rich land.
While ideologists assiduously built up their base, official India always reacts in an ad-hoc manner, chasing shadows in the jungles after each atrocity by the extremists. There is no easy solution in fighting those who adapt guerrilla tactics as the government simply can’t pepper its own territory with bombs from the air. Calls for superior intelligence from the ground level is a standard response by politicians as well as those given the responsibility of marshalling forces deployed to fight the menace. The fact remains that official India has not been intelligent enough in handling the socio-economic problem, the root cause for the insurgency.
The plight of our poor people ultimately involves us all, and more continuously than random hits made against the state. Obviously, a major shift in perception is called for, including taking forward the idea of all-inclusive development, that is often talked about but rarely acted upon with intent.
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