Unified response can defeat PWG ‘paper tigers’

05 Aug, 2002    ·   819

PV Ramana calls for coordinated and concerted state action to check left extremism in the country


     Direct peace talks between the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government and left-wing extremists of the People’s War Group (PWG) have been stillborn as expected; the PWG was buying time to recoup by proposing these talks.

     The gains for the PWG from this tactic are yet to be analysed. They would have been limited because the AP government correctly decided not to de-proscribe it. However, the PWG stood to gain, because the State police, during the period of the aborted peace process, did not ‘go’ after its cadres and limited themselves to engaging them in clashes if they were encountered.

     Preliminary reports indicate a marginal increase in PWG cadre strength. In one district where the guerrillas had been wiped out except for their leader, it was able to recruit an estimated eight fighters. The PWG might have managed, overall, to add to its numbers and maintain its past strength of an estimated 2,500 cadres (January 2002 estimates), thus making up for the losses it suffered last year.

     While prospects for direct negotiations looked dim from the start, the PWG over-ground representatives – balladeer Gaddar and poet Varavara Rao – entered into ‘talks about talks,’ protesting and complaining of surrenders/encounters having been ‘engineered’ while the peace process was on. Contrast this with the ‘mature’ response of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government. On 25 July 2002, the LTTE did no more than retaliate when a government soldier disobeyed instructions, entered a LTTE area, and opened fire. It did not call-off the ongoing five-month long truce, but exhibited commendable understanding. Though both organizations subscribe to terrorism, the PWG is less mature than the LTTE, even though it had been its pupil and had learnt claymore mine technology from it. Furthermore, two videocassettes containing LTTE training procedures, techniques to blast buildings and bridges, carry out assassinations, and launch attacks on security forces were recovered from a PWG dump in Nelamaliga village, Visakhapatnam district, in December 2001.

     The PWG’s linkages stretch further. As a member of the International Communist Movement, it has established linkages with left-wing extremist groups in different countries. At its ninth Congress in 2001, a delegate from the Communist Party of Turkey – Marxist-Leninist (TKP) was present, besides one from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Reportedly, the delegate from the Philippines, for unknown reasons, could not come.

     Thile the PWG has been ‘networking’ internationally, the various Naxalite-affected states in India are addressing the problem individually. No sooner had the PWG trashed the peace process it initiated in AP than another came to public notice in West Bengal, where its influence is minimal as compared to AP. Meanwhile, Jharkhnad has issued a high-alert apprehending a rise in PWG violence. The PWG functions cohesively under a Central Military Commission (CMC) that has an all-India jurisdiction and sets out guidelines, while leaving field matters to self-styled commanders. On the other hand, the police in each of the states report to their respective governments. The police in one Indian State cannot even name the representatives of the PWG Central Committee belonging to another State. That too, after an all-India Joint Coordination Committee was formed in 2000 to deal with left-wing extremism. Worse still, one of the Union Ministers of State for Home Affairs, K Vidayasagar Rao, hails from the worst Naxalite-affected states of India, AP. The Janasakthi Naxalites abducted one of his relatives and secured a ransom of one crore rupees to free him! For that matter, the former Prime Minister of India, PV Narasimha Rao, and PWG general secretary, Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi, belong to the same district, Karimnagar.

     In India, left-wing extremism has been granted the space it does not deserve. A compartmentalized approach towards the Naxalite problem has been the greatest service to this movement that thrives on violence but had, to be fair to it, partly helped the masses in pockets of India. Two steps are required to diminish and extinguish left-wing extremism in India. One, there is a need for a coordinated, theatre-specific, multi-pronged response from all the affected and likely to be affected states. Two, the state machinery should be seen and its presence felt in every part of India, including the remote forest areas where the Naxalites have most influence. A let-up on these two actions would grant a fresh lease of life to the Naxalites. 

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