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| Wednesday, 16 February 2005 |
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Kneejerk reaction to Naxalism : Need for systemic overhaul Glaring socio-economic disparities and neo-feudalism have led the impressionable youth astray by N C Gundu Rao Left-wing extremism is the jargon sought to be kept in currency with incessant efforts by the self-styled super patriots in the rightist strands of the political spectrum. The dispassionate and detached observers may have disinclination in giving any political slant to extremism which is just a symptom of a perturbed and perverted mind. The minds of those who feel as being more sinned against than sinning. Therefore the first and foremost task should be to diagnose the cause for this illness of mind, and the tendency to equate symptoms themselves with the cause should be curbed at all costs. This is the perspective from which one has to view the state-sponsored violence in the context of the Naxalite militancy manifest in parts of the Malnad and coastal regions of Karnataka. The issue, which has come to the centre stage in the wake of killing of two persons in the alleged encounter between the police and those suspected to be Naxalites at Balige village near Sringeri in Chikmagalur district, has now assumed a frightening dimension with the killing of seven policemen in retaliation by the Naxalites near Pavagada. This kind of tooth for tooth and nail for nail theory is insane to the core. Anyway if past experience is any guide, those who are questioning the ogauthenticity of the police encounter theory are unlikely to get a convincing answer. The similar doubts raised as regards the death of two women in what was officially termed as an encounter with Naxals near Idu village in Karkala taluk of Udupi District in November 2003 have now been consigned to oblivion. The attempts to seek a solution to the socio-economic aberrations through militant methods would just simply militate against the very grain of the democratic spirit. But what is much more abominable is the growing tendency on the part of those who wield power to unleash the State-sponsored counter violence to put down the militancy by the misguided who feel wronged by the existing system as such. Only those purblind to the harsh realities may fail to notice that these radicalist outfits and their subterranean activities have gained momentum from the glaring socio-economic disparities that are still virulent in the countryside. Meanwhile, there seems to be much pith and prudence in the observation made by a British commentator on the Indian scenario that the problems of the poor people would not have turned so acute if those who were elected to represent the poor and espouse their cause in Parliament and the legislatures had fancied and behaved themselves as their (poor people's) bosses. This and the double distilled hypocrisy in implementing welfare measures like the Minimum Wages Act and the Land Reforms Act and also the brazen practice of making a mockery of the cardinal legal tenet that all are equal before law have culminated in the victims of the systemic oppression finding a ray of hope even in those ultra parliamentary forces. It is now common knowledge how the rich and influential who encroach upon the forest land manage to stay beyond the pale of law, the helpless poor and naive aboriginals in such cases get branded as culprits and hounded out mercilessly. This is what lends a touch of absurdity to the otherwise hallowed postulates like the dispensation of even-handed justice and a sense of fair play and there is no dearth of instances to bolster the apprehensions and even the gut feelings of the ordinary people on this score. Such instances are in plenty in the very Malnad region which is feared to have turned fertile for the growth of these militant organisations. It is also an open secret now that both the enforcement of the Land Reforms Act and the processes of identifying and distributing the surplus land under the Act have remained less than an apology of the original spirit and letter of the law which was passed by the State and was once hailed as the most progressive piece of legislation in the country. Even the ritual of mentioning the progress achieved under this law in the major policy documents like the Governor's address to the joint session of the State legislature has been dispensed with. The wry comment often heard that even the advent of democracy and decentralisation of power in the rural areas have often ended up in the emergence of neo feudalism does not seem to be coming from only the swaggering cynics in society. Meanwhile, it is lamentable indeed that the response of the powers that be, no matter what the political complexion of the power structure is, to the eruption of militancy is nothing more than a kneejerk reaction. There can be no better clinching evidence of this than the habit of those in office to announce grandiose welfare packages after each such horrendous incident and these packages being dutifully pigeon holed in the dusty archives later by those in officialdom. The role of those who are duty bound to exercise legislative vigil over this also is anything but exemplary. Little wonder some of them become the sitting duck targets to the machinations of these radicalist forces. All said and done the need of the hour is a thorough systemic overhaul and not just a sledgehammer approach to the problem. The synoptic message that gets crystallised from all this is that those at the helm must have their feet firmly in the ground and head in the air and not just the other way round. Courtesy-Deccan Herald |
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