Naxalism is said to be the biggest security threat that India faces. Yet I never hear in Indian Media what are the demand of naxalites. I googled a little and I found out their demands. Here I'm listing them in bold and my response to them which is in clear font.
Here is a set of demands of the People's War (P.W.), listed under 9 categories. I came across them while reading an old edition of frontline. I went through them and here you will find what I think about them.
I. A democratic atmosphere should be created in the State. The government should respect people's right to fight for their democratic demands.
The government should not prevent agitations, peaceful demonstrations and meetings.
This demand should be allowed in any democratic society and thus I see no problem in accepting it.
Lift the ban on the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) P.W. and other organisations.
If you are trying to broker peace with an organization you cannot outlaw them. Can you? So this condition should also be accepted.
Scrap the system of rewards on workers of P.W., People's Guerilla Army and other mass organisations
Same reason as the previous point. Can be accepted
Scrap the system of giving acceleratory promotions and unofficial incentives to police officers who kill naxalites in fake encounters.
Same reason as the previous point. Can be accepted.
Scrap the informant network in villages. The government should end the practice of winning over P.W. workers and using them as covert agents.
Can be accepted as well.
Scrap Grey Hounds, Special Security Forces, and the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) and withdraw the Central paramilitary forces.
Grey Hound, Special Security Forces, SIB are forces which are naxalites focussed forces. If you assume that naxalites are gonna lay down the arm then we can disband the forces. Similarly Central paramilitary forces can go back to the camp. Can be accepted.
Release all political prisoners.'Political Prisoner' is a term which is hard to define. The naxalites' definition will almost certainly not concur with the police's one. Naxalite would claim all naxalite to be 'political prisoners' while police would claim that none are. Demand can be a deal breaker.
Control `lumpen' gangs such as Green Tigers, Kranti Sena, Palnadu Tigers, Tirumala Tigers and Nayeem Gang.
Firstly I am strongly opposed to creating private armies to fight naxalites. In my opinion salwa judum, ranveer sena, Green Tigers etc. They have the potential of causing the same type of problem as Taliban as causing for Pakistan. Secondly if naxalites join the mainstream we won't need them anyway. So they can be disbanded.
Order a judicial probe into all fake encounters and punish the police officers responsible.Fake encounter although illegal but have been used by our police forces to combat all kind of crimes be it Terrorism, organized crime or naxalism. Accepting this demand would greatly damage the moral of the police force. Condition hard to accept.
Lift all cases registered against workers of mass organisations and other revolutionary parties.
Hmm another tough one. A possible solution can be merging this and the previous demand so that both naxalites and police force can agree to a possible solution.
II. Implement reforms in the agricultural sector
Implement land reforms. Handover to the occupants the endowment, government, and forest land and lands belonging to landlords already occupied by people.
Land reform is an act that should have been passed 50 years back. We have millions of landless labors. Zamindari system (my forefathers were also zamindars but albeit in WB where land reform have already taken place) meant land is concentrated in the hand of the few. It would be more human.
Implement the Land Ceiling Act.
Land ceiling act is a regressive act. This would adverselly affect setting up of industry and hence should not be implemented. Distribution of land is a good enough move which can make naxalites withdraw this demand.
Complete all pending irrigation projects. Farmers should be given irrigation facilities and supplied adequate power.
Need I say that this should have never figured in a list of demands of any revolutionary group. This is governments duty. Better late than never lets do it now.Waive all private loans taken by the farming community to stop suicides by farmers.
Difficult to waive private loan but rural credit should be made available so that they can pay back this loan. I think the relief is enough for naxalites to withdraw this demand as well.Prepare a permanent and integrated plan for tackling the drought situation.
After 60 years of independence an agrarian economy like India should have a plan to tackle both drought and floods. So demand should be accepted.
Scrap corporate agriculture.
Not possible, and should not be done. III. Implement policies of industrialisation and other schemes based on local resources in place of the liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policies being followed now.
Withdraw all World Bank projects and schemes supported by imperialists If to bring peace all projects are taken over by government. It cannot hurt.
Stop the retrenchment of workers and the privatisation of public sector enterprises (PSEs)Public enterprise have been proven to be inherently inefficient. Thus this demand should not be accepted. Yet we have to ponder over the fact that why do naxalites oppose private capitalists. This is because in the past private entrepreneur have exploited the poor and the down trodden. Looted the resources. The poor are more susceptible to this kind of exploitation. We have to recognize this. Thus private entreprenurs should be subject to regulation.
Protect small- and medium-scale industries from competition by multinational companies (MNCs) and revive cooperative and other PSEsThe post 1991 experience has proven that we underestimate our own capabilities. Condition should not be accepted. Withdraw user charges on drinking water, education and health servicesShould be accepted and implemented in all backwards and remote areas.
Scrap all agreements with the World Bank, MNCs and other countriesWere naxalites out of their mind when they made this demand? IV. Recognise the tribal people's rights on forest.
Announce autonomy for the tribal peopleThe weakest section should be protected. Tribals have a way of live and we should respect that. Forest is their home and sooner we accept it better for all of us. This demand can be accepted. Implement the "1/70 Act", which provides protection against the alienation of land held by tribal people in scheduled areas to non-tribal people. Stop settling of non-tribal people in areas inhabited by tribal people.Declare forest area as restricted area and let the tribals guard the forest. . This will lead to conservation of forest
Initiate steps to develop and support tribal languageA democracy means giving space to every sect of people. Tribals have their ethnic culture and languages and we should try to preserve them. V. Formulate an integrated plan for the development of backward regions of North Coastal and Rayalasseema areas.Grant this demand and then form plans for development of every region of this nation. Shouldn't that have been done in the past 60 years anyway?
Very well written with a good study being done,I really apreciate your views as well.
Then lets just do it..!!!
Fikar not time is going to arrive very soon. You just have to support the movement with your heart and soul. May god help us in making India a crime free country with love and peace. And give this world an example.
Best of luck to all of us..!!!
I should say that this is a nice post. But few things are to be made clear. How old was the frontline which you referred? Because demands might have changed. Also the end result is not clear. What when most of the demands are met? What after an understanding? Will Maoists lay down their weapons? Will Maoists indulge and accept constitution?
I have also got to hear that naxals don't believe in democracy. You see, as a lame man, I get to witness contradictory claims. Demand-I should not be debated until unless the maoists makes its stand clear.
I agree with you on most of the list under Demand-II. In this era, being like North Korea is not favorable. These seems like demands of Taliban and such extreme groups whose inclination is towards self isolation - rubbish! As far as your agreeing on the withdrawal of user charges, I stand neutral - statistics needed.
Claim of autonomy is too abstract. Stop settling of non-tribal people is on what basis? This is against the fundamental rights to freedom. I support fundamental rights and believe in them, so I have to disagree, this can't be done. I agree with the need to give Tribals land but the land assigned must be propotionate.
I agree with you on Demand-IV. This should have been done and is going on. It will take time.
I only know that if we can make their life better they will leave their weapons.
i really appreciate your thoughts
These kind of approach should be taken by govt
good post
Great.Infact most of us do not know as to what they want and why this bloodshed? people must know their demands and the media should also elaborate so that a public opinion is formed.After all we r living in a secular and democratic country.
Hi People thanks for appreciating my post.
@Sandeep
This post itself is over an year old so the demands are bound to be old. I wrote this post before the bloodbath and before the nation was glued to the "Naxal Problem".
nice job done by burman
What more can I say, great post, hopefully there will come a day when peace prevails completely in our great nation of values.
Naxalites are in some way or the other a part of communism. World history shows us the drawback of what is being a communist state. It may have bring some good to a country like china, but in India, a country which has corruption widespread, communism would only bring loss.
The first demand that you have stated for a democratic state, i would like to say that our constitution already guarantees them.If we today, lift the ban from CPI and other such organisations we'll promote our country's bad-will. As I have already mentioned, in a corrupted country like India communism would be a big failure. Our formost priority shall be protecting our freedom, democracy. how can we lift our forces dedicated to keep a check on naxalites?
I agree with you on your 2nd demand's comments.
The 3rd demand is about industrialization.If we have to be a developed country by 2020, we need to industrialize, rather than promoting foreign industries. We need to understand our capabilities and protect our sunshine industries,be it small or large.Today's youth need to know the importance of our financing capacity. We may have the 4 highest gdp in the world. But our pp is much more less than USA. We have such a lot of resources, be it human, land or money.What is needed is the art of using it.
By 2020 we must make 1 rupee equal to 1 dollar and it is only possible when we industrialize at a larger scale. Industrialize refers to everything, from clothing to farming, from iron to wood. Today veto power is with only 5 countries because of their high financial value.WE NEED TO PROMOTE INDUSTRIALIZATION.
The fourth demand states tribal's right on forest. If we want to be developed, we need to eradicate the backwardness. We need to move tribals to cities, give them proper housing and provide education.
The fifth demand is no doubt fine.We need to develop each area.
In today's India we need a new and responsible govt. instead of naxalism.Our constitution still follow Britisher's policies still after 60 years of Independence. We need to formulate new policies in accordance with the needs of youth India.
-Tanya Sethi
gud job man
good job indeed, but if a tribal community guards forest, is there any guarantee that forest resourses (flora & fauna)remain intact.
gud job buddy, this govt is neither of these people for whom naxalites had to fight nor of the soilders killed by naxalites. The nominal amount of 1 lac promised by govt to families of 87 soilders killed by naxalites is still not paid..Moreover proper action on naxalite issue is still not taken..
@rahul: i actually wanted to know what is governments response to these demands.
can u help me?
very helpful article.thank you.
I don't think there is any actual reason for their existence. They created all the problem and the govt. started the control measures. Now they wan't the govt. to scrap the control measure, this is why they are killing and getting killed for, stupid buggers. The leaders should all face the firing squad.
The govt. should check corruption and red tapesm, this even I agree.
Karma TP
अति सुन्दर, अब जा कर मेरे मस्तिष्क मै मओवादियो का उद्देश्य समझ मै आया, और यह कोई ऐसी समस्या नहीं लगती जिसका निराकरण संभव न हो | भारत के मीडिया वर्ग ने तो लज्जा की सारी सीमाए तोड़ दी हैं , यह सब बताना और दिखाना उनका काम है, परन्तु उन्हें तो बॉलीवुड और राहुल गाँधी के पीछे भागने से ही फुर्सत नहीं है | जय हिंद |
Awesome post & insightful analysis of the Naxalite demands! ..keep going
well enough ,well studied contents
thanks for this short but brief article......made thins clear
commendable piece of information with a good angle !
Naxals are common humanbeings like us.They should be taught to bring back to main stream by developing their mind giving economic freedom.
Dr.R.K.Mohanty
we love human-race.They are part of us.Let them live happily.
SANJAY RAJ
std-x
SASNT,CUTTACK
demand karne ke aur bhi tareke hote hain bro....
naxals are not doing a good job by killing people..
their some demands are in favour of nation those should be considered ........ aur sedhi baat hai inki is demand ko pura bhi kar doge to ye kahenge har tribe ko country bna do india ke itne tukde kar do jitne tribes hain ............ they are nothing bas apna raaj chalana chahte hain ye
Naxalite menace is only due to implementation of bad govt. policies and non implementation of good policies. One fine example is Coal and other mining Scams surfacing and nipping in bud. I agree fully with Rahul with great research and point wise explanation.
Ek yeh Rahul Hai aur ek Woh Rahul Hai