Left Wing Extremism is not only a security threat but also a political socio economic challenge. In this context, discuss various measures taken by the government to fight against LWE. Also examine the present dynamics of Maoist Insurgency in India.
LWE organizations are the groups that try to bring change through violent revolution. They are against democratic institutions and use violence to subvert the democratic processes at ground level. These groups prevent the developmental processes in the least developed regions of the country & try to misguide the people by keeping them ignorant of current happenings.
Measures taken by the government to fight against LWE
- Greyhounds
- Operation Green Hunt
- LWE Mobile Tower Project
- Aspirational Districts Programme
- SAMADHAN
Note: students should elaborate on the above measures by sticking to the word limit
Dynamics of Maoist Insurgency in India
- Some sections of the society, especially the younger generation, have romantic illusions about the Maoists, arising out of an incomplete understanding of their ideology. The central theme of Maoist ideology is violence. The Maoist insurgency doctrine glorifies violence as the primary means to overwhelm the existing socio-economic and political structures. The People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of CPI (Maoist), has been created with this purpose in mind.
- A strident propaganda is also carried out against the purported and real inadequacies of the existing state structure.
- In areas under Maoist domination, the absence of governance becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy since the delivery systems are extinguished through killings and intimidation. This is the first step in the strategy of the Maoists to seek to control the countryside. In the meanwhile, many Front Organisations are created to facilitate mass-mobilisation in semi-urban and urban areas through ostensibly democratic means. Most of the Front Organisations are led by well-educated intellectuals with a firm belief in the Maoist insurgency doctrine.
- They stridently take up issues like ‘displacement of tribals’, ‘corporate exploitation’, ‘human rights violations’ by security forces etc. and often make fantastic claims in this regard which get reported even by the mainstream media. The Front Organisations also skilfully use state structures and legal processes to further the Maoist agenda and weaken the enforcement regime. The important functions of these Organisations include recruitment of ‘professional revolutionaries’, raising funds for the insurgency, creating urban shelters for underground cadres, providing legal assistance to arrested cadres and mass- mobilisation by agitating over issues of relevance/ convenience.
In a nutshell, the CPI (Maoist), the main LWE outfit in India, aims to overthrow the existing democratic state structure with violence as their primary weapon, and mass mobilization and strategic united fronts as complementary components and plans to usher in So-called ‘New Democratic Revolution’ in India.
Though the number of incidents of LWE violence has come down in the recent past, continued efforts and focus are needed in eliminating such groups. Government needs to ensure two things; security of the peace-loving people and the development of the naxalism-affected regions.