The death toll in Naxalite region in past couple of months has been growing dangerously. It’s not just the paramilitary forces but the innocent villagers and other civilians which have been targeted. The movement which was started by landless peasants, to get their dues from the affluent landlords in late seventies, has taken an ugly shape, in the form of unorganized armed gangs.
As per a report from RAW, Naxalites are active across approximately 220 districts in India accounting for about 40 percent of India's geographical area. They are especially concentrated in an area known as the "Red Corridor", where they control 92,000 square kilometers. They have astrength of around 20,000 armed cadre Naxalites, in addition to 50,000 regular cadres, operative in these regions. The GoI has tagged Naxals as “biggest internal security threat”.
Not going into the glorious history what reds cherish, when they had a motive to pursue and had earned a lot of support and sympathy from the poor. Today the movement has been operating, without any clear demands and motive, and killing whoever dares to cross their way. Their so called leaders have turned to ambitious warlords, who have raised their personal forces by brainwashing the unemployed and money hungry youths.
Since I had an opportunity to work in a naxal affected regions, I was really astonished to see the demands they used to put before the officials to fund them. They wanted the funds that were directed for welfare programs like making temple, school or organizing a health camp to be directly given to them in cash. The so called leaders and the middlemen used to distribute their share and the welfare programs were dumped. They used to demand a security fee from the companies for securing their establishments and employees from a possible Naxal attack. If at all this was denied, the result would be ……..
There is nothing called red brigade remaining in the heart of the naxals, it is just the lust for quick bucks that is driving them to earn via easy ways. There have been several incidents which have been indicating the lack of coordination among the fragmented and fringed Brigades.
The possible link up of these armed outfits, which hide under the name of Red Brigade, with international terrorist organizations like Al – XYZ (there are so many now…) is another big threat which has taken the sleeps away from Indian security agencies. The problem is grieving day by day with every Red-faction coming up its own agenda after killing several. I wonder if the Indian Government would decide on taking a strong decision on eliminating these armed groups, like what Sri Lanka did, would actually solve the problem. But one thing is very clear whoever dies in this internal war the color of his blood is RED….
