Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

The Naxal Menace: Need for a National Policy Saumitra Mohan The recent naxal attack in the Giridih district of Jharkhand resulting in the death of 18 people has once again drawn attention to the dreaded malaise that naxalism has become in this country. Naxals’ increasing activism, growing reach and killing power should make us give a more serious thought to this problem. Skilled in guerrilla warfare techniques, naxalites have excellent intelligence system. With committed leaders, motivated cadres, better trained armed militia and sophisticated weaponry, naxals, today, are better equipped to intercept police communication and strike the desired targets at will. Spread over 170 districts, the naxals have been taking advantage of the rising agrarian distress, destruction of forests, uprooting of tribals and marginal peasantry due to predatory mining, irrigation, metallurgical and other developmental projects, not to speak of growing regional disparities. It is quite d...

Growing Naxal Threat in West Bengal *Saumitra Mohan If recent patterns of naxal violence and activism in West Bengal are any indication, the Maoists’ new strategy seem to be setting up bases in newer regions by means of taking up such emotive issues as forcible displacement caused by industrialization and infrastructure development projects. The reports of alleged involvement of the naxals in recent ‘ration riots’ across West Bengal also give a tell tale hints of their changing tactics. With Singur and Nandigram coming into focus, naxalites seem to be placing more reliance on agrarian revolution and protracted people's war as the path for their so-called ‘new democratic revolution’, as seen during the heydays of the Naxalbari upsurge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The motivation for reversion to the nearly four-decades-old agenda is the temptation to capitalize on the controversy revolving around the conversion of farmlands into industrial zones. The naxalites have, indeed, suc...

Strengthening the Right to Information Saumitra Mohan It has been more than two years since the Right to Information Act (RTI) came into force in October 2005. Immediately after its enforcement, a concern was expressed in certain quarters about adequate efforts not being made by all those concerned to implement the Act in its true spirit. It was felt that vested interests were making an all out effort to sabotage the Act. Lot of hue and cry was heard when there was an attempt from within the government to water down certain portions of the Act by excluding the details of information contained in an official note sheet on the pretext of administrative necessity and for securing the officials against victimisation. But in this all, people failed to realise that the Act was in its infancy and would take its time before it starts working to its potential. And it was not very late before people actually started realising the import and power of the right emanating from this partic...

Policing an Anomic Society *Saumitra Mohan It is widely felt that the way our police is organised presently is eminently unsuited for the requirements of a liberal democratic country, strengthened by an active civil society and a very vibrant media. As of now, our police seem to be functioning in a highly authoritarian way informed by a feudal mindset and almost without any sense of service towards the people. At least, this is the popular perception of police and this is definitely something very uncharacteristic of a democracy. There have been many incidents in recent times which have brought the role of our police into question, pointing fingers at the way they function. The police have found itself in the dock for the manner in which they have responded to many crisis-like situations or to the multifarious law and order problems. Police has been on the mat for the reported/alleged brutality attributed to t...

Naxalism:The Enemy Within *Saumitra Mohan The way Naxal activism and related violence has been recurring with increasing frequency lately has really become a cause of serious concern for not only the integrity and security, but also the general well-being of this country. While neighbouring Nepal is witnessing a reconciliation with the Naxals, as reflected in latter’s participation in the new government, India continues to be a victim of their gory ways. The mainstreaming of the Naxal movement in Nepal hopefully marks the end of the Naxal movement in that country, India is still groping in the darkness to size up the real problem and come out with a suitable response in the form of a well-coordinated strategy to break this wild and intractable stallion called Naxalism. The recent surge in naxal violence has established beyond doubt that naxalism is more than a mere law and order problem. And now that increasing evidence is being found of their extra-national linkages with the forces ho...

National SECURITY MANAGEMENT: Some Reflections Saumitra Mohan National security is a term, which is used very loosely today in common parlance. It is often associated with safeguards either against an enemy country's hostile incursions or manoeverings or against armed non-state actors out to challenge the authority of the state and cause irreparable damages to the unity and integrity of the state. However, national security subsumes these aspects and goes much beyond them and is much more inclusive and broader than commonly understood. The theme of this paper as mentioned at the outset includes three terms namely 'national', 'security' and ‘management’. Before we go on to discuss the theme in detail, it would be better if we seek to understand what these terms stand for. The first of these, i.e. 'national' means something that is related to 'nation' which is regarded as being co-terminus with the 'state'. In case of India, it has often been...

Middle East Peace Process: An Overview Saumitra Mohan Since the conclusion of a peace accord between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the State of Israel, on September 13, 1993, the peace process in that conflict-ridden region has generated a lot of hopes for the elusive peace there, which finally seems to be within the reach. The peace accord on that fateful day marked the beginning of a credible settlement of the contentious Palestine question, which had cast its baneful shadow on almost all events and developments in the region for close to three quarters of a century. Though still not fully settled, the entire peace process shows as to what could be achieved if the requisite political will is there in abundance to take on a problem which for long evaded a solution acceptable to both the parties. The conflicting claims of the Jewish and Palestinian people lay at the heart of the Palestine question. The Jews staked their claim on Palestine because it was the seat of th...

The Kosovo Problem: Implications for India Saumitra Mohan The tinder-box of the Balkans is again in flames and even threatens to spin out of control. The conflict over Kosovo has gone far beyond the "humanitarianism" that informed the collective intervention in Somalia about half a decade back. Even a greenhorn unschooled in international relations can sense the dangerous portents in Yugoslavia. The smoke wafting away from Kosovo may one day garrotte the world if it continues to be a mute spectator over a conflict which has serious implications for the concretizing post-Cold War world order. Though India has lately undertaken a few proactive steps towards the resolution of the Kosovo tangle, Indian reactions so far have been quite restrained and stopped short of an outright condemnation of the US misadventure in Yugoslavia. The Indian response is informed more by her own substantial economic interests in trade with the US and Europe which together account for more than 40 per...