THE MAOIST BATTLE

The menace of Maoist is not new to the people of this country. Every year hundreds of policemen and civilians die because of the attacks by the Maoists. A large part of the country is under the influence of Maoist. They are trying to maintain their own separate government. Over the last few years the numbers of districts that are under the influence of Maoists have increased. There are many states which are worst affected by them namely Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. Apart from these states, there are other states which are also affected.

The Maoists claim to be a revolutionary group. But actually they are far from being a revolutionary group. Their main weapon is violence and killing of innocent lives. They mainly started their movement among the landless people but later on speard it to other spheres also. They stay in the jungles where military action becomes difficult. They consider themselves to be communists but what they are doing does not synchronize with the ideology of communism. The last few months have seen a sharp rise in the activities of these Maoists. There have been killings of innocent people and attacks on police personnel.

The incident at Lalgarh took the whole country by surprise as they declared a zone to be free, such is their influence. The Union Home Ministry had to immediately bring in battalions of security forces so that the area can be liberated from the Maoists. A long battle happened between the two sides. The security forces could ultimately enter into Lalgarh but still incidents of violence are reported from these places. The recent death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. Y. S. R. Reddy in a chopper crash is also being speculated as work of them only. Most recently they stopped Rajdhani Express for more than 5 hours demanding the release of their leader Chatradhar Mahato leading to a near hijack of the Express.

The main reasons for our Police forces in tackling them are our men in khakis are ill equipped. Where as these outfits are equipped with modern arms and ammunitions, our forces still have pre-independence guns. Also proper strategy is lacking among the forces. Moreover root cause of the problem has to be solved to bring the Maoists problem to an end for good.