By IANS
New Delhi : Underlining again that Maoists posed the single biggest security challenge to India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday urged chief ministers to cripple their rebellion with all means at their command.
Delving at length on the Maoist movement that affects at least 12 states, Singh reiterated the need to shore up the country’s internal security machinery and called for superior policing techniques to defeat the insurgency.
“Not a day passes without an incident of leftwing extremism taking place somewhere or the other. There also seems to be a consolidation of various groups with better coordination and strike capabilities,” the prime minister told chief ministers attending a conclave on internal security.
“I have said in the past that leftwing extremism is the single biggest security challenge to the Indian state. It continues to be so, and we cannot rest in peace till we have eliminated this virus.
“We need a coordinated response to this challenge. The answers to the problem are well known. We need to cripple Naxalite forces with all the means at our command.”
Although the number of violent incidents blamed on the Maoists fell from 1,509 in 2006 to 1,285 until Oct 31 this year, the number of security personnel killed by them rose from 157 last year to 188 until the end of October in 2007.
The Maoist uprising in India began in May 1967 in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari, giving birth to the terminology Naxalites. The most powerful Maoist group today is called the Communist Party of India-Maoist.
Referring to this week’s jailbreak in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district – the epicentre of the Maoist rebellion – where nearly 300 prisoners along with Maoists escaped, Singh lamented the paucity of policemen to counter the fast-emerging challenges including hinterland terrorism.
“I hear that there were only three staff in the Dantewada jail. Inadequate, ill-equipped, ill-trained, poorly-motivated personnel cannot take on the Naxal extremists who are increasingly better equipped and organised.”
While Singh has spelt out the need to stamp out Maoist violence earlier too, this is the first time he elaborately detailed how their spread could throttle economic development.
“They are carefully targeting all aspects of economic activity. They are targeting vital economic infrastructure so as to cripple transport and logistic capabilities and also slow down any development activity,” he said.
“This helps them sustain their ideology of deprivation and neglect. They have even managed to eliminate important political leaders and their associates in some states.”
The prime minister urged the chief ministers to strengthen core policing, fill up vacancies in police forces and show better leadership and resolve to face up to the challenge.
Pointing to the high profile terror attacks in Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Punjab and the multiple strikes in Uttar Pradesh this year, Singh stressed the importance of sprucing up the intelligence machinery by proper staffing and equipping of special branches.
“The key to success in fighting terror is intelligence – and intelligence needs to be precise and capable of being acted upon,” he said.
“The other aspect I notice is the increased focus of terrorists on soft targets. These include transport systems – as we saw in Mumbai, public places – as we saw in Hyderabad and Punjab and religious shrines – as we saw in Ajmer.”
Twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad at an amusement park and restaurant left 40 people dead in August while two pilgrims were killed in a bomb blast at the Ajmer Sharif shrine in Rajasthan a month later.
“We need to improve our surveillance and preventive systems to reduce the probability of terror attacks. This is a cost – but a cost we must learn to bear for the sake of the safety and security of our citizens.”
Singh added how the lack of development and the lack of any prospects provided a fertile ground for extreme ideologies.
“I am concerned about the unevenness of our development process and the various development divides that are opening up in the country – the inter-regional divide, the rural-urban divide and the inter-sectoral divide.
“These divides and disparities lead to disaffection, large-scale migration and discord, and I notice that in many cases internal security problems arise out of uneven development.”