NAXALISM: ILLEGITIMATE MEANS FOR THE LEGITIMATE ENDS

1. What is the history behind this Naxalite movement?

• In 1964, there occurred split in CPI leading to CPI and CPI(M). M stands for Marxists.
• This split happened as a section of people associated with CPI wanted to work with government rather than to involve in people's mobilization. Another section wanted to adopt revolutionary tactics and took an anti-government stand, this section was called as CPI(M).
• CPI(M) mobilized peasants between 1964-67 and helped them during famine, rain failure and inflation.
• In 1967, CPI(M) decided to fight elections. Though they didn't have much expectations but they won and form a government in West Bengal.
• Now, CPI(M) was in dilemma. On the one hand they cadres were trained to oppose government and on the other they themselves were government now.
• Young cadres of CPI(M) rejected the stand of their party of entering electoral politics to bring change and formed a new party CPI(ML) i.e. Marxist Leninist. 
• Due to the improper implementation of land reforms in Naxalbari and surrounding areas at that time the CPI(ML) acdres led to an armed uprising which has now 
• Finally, CPI(ML) merged with MCC to form CPI(Maoists) which is spearheading Naxalism in India today.

2. How this Naxalism is related to the failure of land reforms?

• CPI(ML) got the boost only when the government was not implementing the policy of land reforms in right manner. The upper castes colluded with the government officials and provided obstacle to land reforms.
• Also, the lack of implementation of 5th schedule by the respective state governments led to the alienation of tribal people from the government. 
• This led to the uprising by the CPI(ML) cadres and they advocated armed revolution to obtain their rights.
• Today, they want to overthrow the Indian state to realize their own vision of development.

3. Who supports Naxalites?

• It is the deprived and exploited sections of society, mainly tribals, whose basic needs such as food and water have not been fulfilled by the government.

4. What are the various causes of Naxalism?

• Land related issues: Evasion of land ceiling laws, lack of titles to landless people and transfer of land to no-tribals in the schedule 5 areas.
• Displacement related issues: Eviction of tribals from their traditional land for irrigation, mining and other projects. Failure to give proper compensation & lack of rehabilitation exacerbated the problem.
• Livelihood related issues: Lack of alternate work opportunities as these people don't have skills to work in modern occupations. Not given minimum wage for their hard work (Naxalites give them work with minimum wages). Lack of food security with non-functional PDS.
• Social Exclusion: Humiliation from upper castes in the form of forced labor, sexual exploitation of women leading to denial of respect and dignity.
• Governance related issues: Poor provisions of essential public services such as health, roads and other infrastructure. Lack of motivated personnel leads to corruption and exploitation of tribals. Failure of implementation of PESA by the state governments.

5. How these Naxalites generate support for themselves?

• They create conditions for the non-functioning of the government and seeks to disrupt the developmental activities of the government.
• Then they do some development work and create fear in the mind of people to control them.

6. What is the role of different agencies to solve this problem?

• Security Forces: Form trained special task forces on the pattern of grey hounds as done in A.P. Sensitize and re-train them to the root causes of the problem. Draw police force from local youth so that the locals will get employment and the police will get the local intelligence.
• Administrative Institutions: Effectively implement the laws and improve the service delivery mechanism. Implement FRA effectively. There is an urgent need to implement NREGS in letter ans spirit to solve the issues of depressed wages. Give more flexibility in the implementation of centrally sponsored scheme by decentralization.Timely and effective implementation of dispute settlement is necessary.
• Government Personnel: Identify the officers who have empathy and sensitivity towards the problem and the people. Recognize their service, reward them and finally involve them in policy making. Remove the dominance of non-tribals from the civil services in that area.
• Local bodies: Strengthen the local bodies to solve the local problems. Properly implement PESA. Cooperative sector should be developed to check corruption and inefficiency.
• Civil Society: It can check the abuse by the police. Educate the people about the futility of violence. Prevent the aggravation of situation by ventilating public grievances within the legal democratic framework.

7. What is Integrated Action Plan?

• Look at this link for complete information. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=79472