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...