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.