Tackling Naxalism in West Bengal
*Saumitra Mohan

Amidst so many of our internal security problems, the home-grown naxalism, prodded and abetted by external forces, keeps rearing its head from time to time in the most uglier ways than we can imagine. And all these expressions of their nefarious intent to tear down our painstakingly-built liberal democratic edifice have made it imperative for us to fix this problem right away without wasting anytime. One such expression of Naxal’s evil design on Indian state was the recent attack on the convoy including the Chief Minister and the Union Steel Minister at Salboni in West Medinipur in West Bengal in November last year.

The blowing up of a railway station by the Maoist Communist Centre on the Orissa-Jharkhand border and the relatively less damaging attack on another may are other significant expressions of Naxal fury. Outrage on obscure wayside stations, whether in Bengal’s Purulia or Orissa’s Bhalulata and Chandiposh recently by the naxals point to the audacity of the anti-national elements in carrying out such vandalism with clinical dexeterity. Such manifestations of extremist activity need to be examined in the larger context.

The Chief Minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union Steel Minister Mr Ram Vilas Paswan had a narrow escape when a landmine exploded within minutes of their convoy passing through on NH-60 near Salboni in West Medinipur on November last year. A spare pilot car of the convoy was, however, caught in the explosion, resulting in injuries to six police personnel, including two policewomen. The incident took place at Baroa, 17 km from Salboni, from where the Chief Minister, Mr Paswan, State Industry Minister Mr Nirupam Sen and industrialist Mr Sajjan Jindal were returning after laying the foundation stone for the proposed Jindal Steel Works plant.

The injured including Kartik Maity, Ranjit Mondal, Rabindra Nath Mahato, Yudhisthir Mahato, Fulmoni Mandi and Alaka Chakraborty were rushed to Medinipur Medical College and Hospital with splinter injuries. It is believed that Maoists planted the mine a few days back. The incident was supposedly quite daring in the sense that the same took place notwithstanding the deployment of over 1,200 security force personnel, including, CRPF, BSF and the state armed police to secure the area. It were the Naxals, active in the area, who were behind the attack. They had also blown up a state health department vehicle on 22 October in Belpahari resulting in the death of a doctor and had killed a CPI-M leader the previous day in West Medinipur.
Maoists who were hiding on either side of the highway near the blast site are also said to have fired several rounds towards the convoy. A probe has already been ordered to find out whether there was any intelligence failure. The enquiry team is also supposed to look into whether there was any neglect on the part of the policemen who had conducted anti-sabotage and anti-landmine checking in the area ahead of the CM’s trip.

In another incident on December 23 last year, the Naxals indiscriminately fired upon the policemen to reinforce their presence in the area while the policemen could not retaliate to avoid killing villagers in a busy weekly bazaar. “The perpetrators had merged with the market crowd. Had they been fired at, the bullets would have also hit many innocent villagers,” said Kuldip Singh, Inspector-General of Police (Western Range). Dressed in ordinary clothes in the crowded haat (bazaar), over 30 Maoists had fired at four policemen when they arrived at the construction site of a community hall to relieve their colleagues on the previous shift. Two constables were killed and a third was seriously injured. Their rifles were taken away. There were at least three women among the attackers, who were selling vegetables at the haat before the strike. Within minutes, some men and women got on motorcycles and sped away through the market towards the Jharkhand border. The police had been posted at the construction site after Maoists threatened to blow up the community hall being built by the panchayat six km from the Jharkhand border.

The Naxals are increasingly getting bolder in their acts, thinking ahead and acting smarter than us. This is definitely a time for some soul-searching for us. The incident points to the imperatives of further beefing up our intelligence gathering and processing by the state and the central intelligence machineries. The Naxals have this uncanny knack of picking holes through our security arrangements and make us look vulnerable to their radical motivations.

While the Prime Minister has already termed Naxalism as the greatest internal security threat, we need better counter strategies and mechanism including better coordination and intelligence sharing among the states falling in the so-called Red Corridor where Naxals are said to be active. Along with Purulia and Bankura, West Medinipur is part of the Red Corridor. It is a Maoist bastion contiguous to Jharkhand, the hotbed of Left radicalism. The inter-state border serves as an exit point after every act of dare-devilry by the Maoists.

It is long acknowledged that these districts need more attention in terms of more developmental initiatives. However, what is surprising is the failure on the part of the Maoists to see reason. While the government has been making every effort to ratchet up the developmental process in these under-developed regions, the Maoists are just not allowing the administration to do the needful in the area. With no positive plan of their own, the Naxals are forcing the administration to waste its energy and time by such meaningless act of theirs.