Means to an end or the other way round?

In my last post regarding the Naxal issue I spoke about the government’s plan to launch the biggest attack on the Naxals ever – operation green hunt and how the government is manipulating the corporate media to justify this offensive move.
There are however, a few basic questions about the Naxal debate that need to be answered before launching an attack on them. Can Naxalism really be wiped out by brute counter force? Why are these poor tribals increasingly taking up a route that they know will end in death? Has the government created a situation where death seems to be a more attractive choice that deprivation? Why would the trouble-free tribals, most of them armed with ancient bows and arrows want to take on the might of government and their paramilitary forces?




Well the answer to these questions as complicated as it may seem are rather simple. We have a tendency to talk about the Naxals as if they are terrorists, people who wreck an otherwise peaceful and prosperous country. This is a result of powerful propaganda by the government. But Naxalism is not terrorism; it is a way of expressing popular discontent, which arises because of multiple flaws in the system.
Our Home minister, the Public relations and media expert, recently spoke about “development” in this region, but he also said he will follow something called as a “clear hold policy,” which means he will first “liberate” the Maoist controlled area and then go ahead and develop these areas. Well somebody needs to remind the Home minister that it is the lack of “development” in the tribal areas in the past six decades is the reason for discontent and rebellion amongst the Naxals and their supporters.



There is a reason for the widespread support that the Naxals receive from the tribals. The tribal areas in interior parts of the country are as far away from development as they can get. Terms like education, electricity and healthcare are mere concepts that only vaguely exist in files stacked in the storeroom of the very many non- functional Panchayat offices in these areas. Another issue is the Tribal bill, which like other documents exists merely on paper, where states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have never even acted on it. If you ask a tribal to stay away from the land and the forests he is completely dependent on, there is bound to be discontent and rebellion.




These issues are very conveniently ignored by the bureaucrats sitting in the posh offices in Delhi. They very evidently chose to take the simpler route of first finishing the tribals and then concentrate on the development of these areas. If they chose to take the other route that first concentrated on development in these areas then the need to launch such a massive offense against their own people wouldn’t arise.

These areas need development and the people need to be given their fundamental rights. The corruption needs to be dealt with, the poor governance needs to be done away with and the development process needs to begin at the most fundamental level. The process will definitely take time, but if the problems did not arise overnight then the solution cannot either. 60 years of negligence cannot be dealt with one offensive move by the Para-military forces; all it can do is lead to a civil war and a dilapidated nation which will be beyond repair.

The war against poverty

The Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India claims that 125 districts spread over nine states in India are under the influence of Naxalites. The home ministry has been planning a major armed offensive against the Naxals, specifically in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra.




According to various reports, the home ministry plans to deploy around 75,000 troops including the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), in Naxal infested areas. There is also a talk of bringing in the Rashtriya Rifles, a contingent created especially for counter-insurgency work. Furthermore, it is reported that six or more Mi-17 choppers with special forces on board will be deployed to provide air support to this already massive arsenal line-up. A Special Forces school and a Brigade Headquarters are also to be set up in Chhattisgarh in addition to local state forces and specialised anti-Naxal forces that already exist in the affected states. No doubt, this impressive military line-up is by far the largest armed action planned by the Indian government against the Naxalites.
And after drawing up plans for such a huge offensive, our eloquent Home Minister says, "We do not wage war against our own people.” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram have in fact called the Naxals “the gravest threat to India’s internal security.” This planned war that the home minister is blatantly denying is set to begin in November this year.

Under normal circumstances, this type of news should have – or, should I say, would have- made big headlines and stirred a huge public and media debate but, surprisingly, it has failed to initiate a major reaction. Operation Green Hunt continues to be planned and implemented almost in complete secrecy.
Why is this attack on nearly one-fourth of the Indian population so effortlessly ignored by the Indian media? The answer lies in the additional twist to the story. This time around the government has gone one-step ahead and taken advice from the United States security officials on how best to root out the “leftist rebels.”



In his four-day visit to America on September 9 this year , the Home Minister focussed his visit on the India-US anti-terror cooperation, technological assistance, analysis of security concerns and the security situation in South Asia, alongside a study of counter-terrorism institutions and structures in the US.
The United States, a self-styled expert on “war on terror”, seems to have mastered the art of propaganda by controlling the corporate media (as seen during the Vietnam War and more recently, in the Iraq war), thereby influencing popular public opinion. Following the footsteps of its newfound associate, the Indian government is taking the fight against the Naxals to a new level.

The Home ministry is now involving the popular media directly in their fight against the Naxals. On the one hand, the government is issuing advertisements in the mainstream media showing “cold blooded killings” of innocent Indian citizens by the Naxals. On the other hand, the news media has been publicising all this while how the Naxals have been perennially at war with the Indian state.





The Indian government is basically practicing something similar to what Hitler did during World War II and America during the war in Vietnam and Iraq: using the corporate media to channelize public opinion in their favour and against domestic adversaries. When a point of view is repeated again and again for a considerable length of time, people tend to start believing in it, especially when the other side of the story is so easily suppressed and concealed. The Naxals are being portrayed as anti-establishment, anti-government, and therefore, anti- democracy.

The portrayal of the Naxals by the media as an enemy of the state is an attempt to turn public opinion against the Naxalite movement, and at the same time, to legitimize the violence that will liquidate them.




But there are a few questions that need to be answered. Who are these forces going to fight against? Who really are these Naxals and how does one differentiate between a tribal and a Naxal during war? War may be a solution, but is it the only solution? Are we heading towards creating another psychologically chaotic society, like the one we have created in Kashmir?



From the articulation of my views, I may sound like a Naxal sympathizer, but that is the tragedy of the current debate on Naxals in India: it is absolutely polarized - you are either pro-Naxals or a government supporter. It seems that nobody has found, or wishes to find, a middle ground to solve the problem in a less violent fashion. A war on our own people cannot possibly be the only answer to the problem; it can only inflict further damage on the social system in these areas.

Opium war

A recent UN finding says that an opium market worth $65bn (£39bn) funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people every year.Figures that are both shocking and distressing bring to the fore some questions of immense importance: Where does this large amount of opium grow? How does the entire process work so freely? Who are the people behind it? And finally, if there exists an ulterior motive behind funding the excessive opium farming?



Afghanistan enjoys an absolute monopoly on illegal opium production in the world. The country, still on the crutches of rebuilding after the U.S war, produces close to 92% of the world's opium, with almost 3,500 tonnes leaving the country each year. Interestingly, the annual world demand for illicit opium has never exceeded 5,000 tons. But in the past few years, which includes2009, Afghanistan’s supply capacity has well exceeded this amount.

The blatant abuse of Afghan opium is responsible for the maximum number of drug related deaths in the world. This drug reaches the rest of the world via central Asian countries and via Pakistan, leaving behind massive traces of addiction in these countries.


Ironically, the number of Russians that die each year due to Afghan drugs is far more than the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. In member countries of NATO, more than 10,000 people die every year due to abuse of Afghan heroin. This makes it five times more than the total number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.



However, the problem of opium farming in Afghanistan is not restricted to addiction alone. Afghan drugs have catastrophic consequences. They fund criminals, insurgents, and terrorists in Afghanistan and abroad. Taliban is reported to have huge interests in the steady growth of opium farming in Afghanistan. According to the UNODC report, Afghan opium sufficient to meet the world demand for the next two years has gone missing. UN and various other agencies fear the hand of the Taliban behind the missing opium.

In 2009, opium cultivation in Afghanistan decreased by 22%, from 157,000 hectares (ha) in 2008 to 123,000 ha today.According to an interview given to CNN by Walter Kemp from the UNODC, the world needs around 4,000 tons of opium a year for licit and illicit purposes. This year in spite of the decrease in opium production around 6,900 tons was produced; 7,700 tons of opium was produced last year and more than 8,500 the year before that.



Also, according to Kemp, the world demand for opium is steady, the supply is more but the prices are not crashing, which clearly indicates that a large amount of opium is being withheld from world markets. Moreover, since the world needs only 4000 tons of opium every year, it gives rise to an important question: where is rest of the opium going? According to the United Nations Organisation, there is strong evidence to indicate that Taliban may be stockpiling the missing Afghan opium to finance their illegal activities and needs. The Taliban is reported to have stocked approximately 12,000 tons of opium somewhere in and around Afghanistan. The terrorist organisation also earns revenues by taxing opium production in Afghanistan. “The Taliban's direct involvement in the opium trade allows them to fund a war machine that is becoming technologically more complex and increasingly widespread,” said Antonia Maria Costa, head of UNODC, in an interview to the BBC.

Opium farming in Afghanistan is not only a growing concern sitting heavy on the brow of the Afghan government, but, is giving sleepless nights to the entire world. It is eating into the already devastated social structure of Afghanistan. Entire villages in the country are reportedly getting addicted to this dangerous drug. Decades of war, destruction and poverty have instilled a sense of misery in many people there, making opium an easy anodyne to deal with an often-grim reality.



The decrease in opium cultivation in the present year maybe welcome news, but, this alone will not solve all the problems in Afghanistan. Conversely, the problems in Afghanistan can never be solved without controlling the drug production in the country.