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Spring Thunder : An Appeal To The Indian State
Spring Thunder : An Appeal To The Indian State
You say I am an
enemy of my own state,
a traitor. That I’m red,
ultra, extremist, maoist.
You also call me Naxalite!
As you go on subsidizing
poor, poor Tatas, Birlas,
Ambanis, do I ever crib?
Even when you say there’s
no money for me, I only
The Naxalite movement began in Naxalbari village in West Bengal, India in 1967
as a peasant uprising led by Charu Mazhumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal
Santhal against feudal landlords and soon acquired a momentum of its own and
spread to many parts of India.
Some of the finest brains and cream of India’s youth spurred by dreams of a new
social order left their homes and colleges to join this movement. The Chinese
Communist Party and the government of China initially hailed the Indian
revolutionaries and lent support. The ‘People’s Daily’ proclaimed in its editorial
that “a peal of spring thunder” has crashed over India.
The response of the Indian state was brutal. Overwhelming use of armed force to
repress the movement and its leaders! Yet, the might of the Indian state backed
by the world’s second largest army, fourth largest air-force & fourth largest
navy, a well organized police force and crores of rupees have all failed miserably
to wipe out the naxalite movement which has only continued to grow from
strength to strength over the last four decades and today poses the gravest threat
to the unity and integrity of India.
The alienation of tribals and the other under-privileged and their support to the
naxalite cause continues unabated as a result. The policy of arming and
deploying extra constitutional forces like the Salwa Jalum by the Chattisgargh
state government has proved to be counter productive and has only helped in
further alienating the under-privileged. Unless they are brought into the national
mainstream and made stake holders, movements such as naxalism will continue
to flourish and threaten the Indian state.
Today, the naxalites are active in 220 districts spread across 20 states within the
Indian union which is about 40 percent of our geographical spread. They control
about 92,000 square kilometers of Indian territory known as the red corridor,
where the government of India’s writ doesn’t prevail at all. All this with a mere
20,000 armed cadre and another 50,000 regular cadre!
If this menace is left unchecked it will gradually consume the Indian state
someday. It’s time for all free thinking Indians to sit up and ponder how we
have let things to come to this pass and how our policies and approach should
be revamped to check this menace and win back the confidence of the tribals
and the other under – privileged sections of our soceity. JAI HIND!
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