1 No.07/RN/Ref/January/2017 For the use of Members of Parliament NOT FOR PUBLICATION 1 NAXAL PROBLEM IN INDIA Prepared by Shri G. Ranga Rao, Additional Director (23035251) and Shri Vinod Kumar, R.O. of Lok Sabha Secretariat under the supervision of Smt. Kalpana Sharma, Joint Secretary and Shri R.N. Das, Director. The reference material is for personal use of the Members in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties, and is not for publication. This Service is not to be quoted as the source of information as it is based on the sources indicated at the end/in the text publication. MEMBERS' REFERENCE SERVICE LARRDIS LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT, NEW DELHI
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REFERENCE NOTE
No.07/RN/Ref/January/2017
For the use of Members of Parliament NOT FOR PUBLICATION1
NAXAL PROBLEM IN INDIA
Prepared by Shri G. Ranga Rao, Additional Director (23035251) and Shri Vinod Kumar, R.O. of Lok
Sabha Secretariat under the supervision of Smt. Kalpana Sharma, Joint Secretary and Shri R.N. Das,
Director.
The reference material is for personal use of the Members in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties, and is not for publication. This Service is not to be quoted as the source of information as it is based on the sources indicated at the end/in the text publication.
MEMBERS' REFERENCE SERVICE
LARRDIS
LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT, NEW DELHI
NAXAL PROBLEM IN INDIA
Naxalism or Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is one of the major challenges to India's
internal security. Maoist motto, "power flows from the barrel of gun", is their motivating
force. Naxalites seek to overthrow the State through violent means. They openly proclaim
lack of faith in the democratic means of ballot and adhere to the violence as a means of
achieving their ends. Naxal affected areas in India are known as the 'Red Corridor'1.
The Naxal movement started with the tribal-peasant uprising against landlords in
Naxalbari village of Darjiling district, West Bengal in 1967. The uprising was led by
leaders such as Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal. Later, this militant
movement spread all over West Bengal and was carried on by a large number of other
groups2 in different States. In a significant development in 2004, two main naxal groups,
namely the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) and People’s War merged to form
the CPI (Maoist) party. Eventually, by 2008 most of the other Naxal groups were merged
into CPI (Maoist) which emerged as the umbrella of Naxalite outfits. Naxals are also
known for their liaison with external terrorist outfits like LTTE for pooling of resources,
particularly in the acquisition of weaponry, communication technology and the like.
The philosophy of armed struggle to overthrow the State system is anathema to
democracy and open societies. The Government of India has given a call to these groups
to abjure violence and join the mainstream political processes by adopting constitutional
means. Naxals rejected this call as they believe in bullet and not ballot. As a result,
between 2013 and 2016 (till 30th
June) around 44 civilians and 238 security personnel
have been killed in Naxal violence across India. (For details, please see Annexure-I)
1 Red Corridor spreads from Bihar to Tamil Nadu involving 16 provinces of India and nearly 200 districts of these States. Worst affected States are: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. 2 Some important Maoist Groups are: Maoist Unity Centre (Maharashtra), Peoples War Group (Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh), CPI (Marxist & Leninist) (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal), Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) and CPI (ML) Red Flag (Bihar) and CPI-MC Janashakti (Kerela).
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Dynamics of Naxal Violence
Violence being the driving force of Naxal ideology, they often resort to killing and
kidnap. The Maoist insurgency doctrine glorifies violence as the primary means to
overthrow the existing socio-economic and political structures. The Peoples Liberation
Guerilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of CPI (Maoist), has been created for this
purpose. In the first stage of the insurgency, the PLGA resorts to guerrilla warfare which
aims at creating a fear psychosis in the existing governance structures. This is attempted
by killing lower-level government officials, local police personnel, workers of
mainstream political parties and elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
In the areas under Maoist domination, the absence of governance, which is created
by their violent methods in the first place, becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy. The
service delivery systems are extinguished through killing, kidnap, intimidation and
extortion. Kidnapping high value targets like Districts Magistrates is done to negotiate
the release of high value arrested cadres. Sometimes, insurgency itself is seen as a form
of livelihood by the cadres. In the meanwhile, many frontal organisations are created to
facilitate mass-mobilisation in semi-urban and urban areas through ostensibly democratic
means. Most of these frontal organisations are led by highly-educated people who have a
firm faith in the insurgency doctrine and provide intellectual support to the movement in
the name of fighting exploitation of tribals. These people function as masks to cover the
vicious nature of Naxal ideology. When Naxals are killed in counter insurgency
operations, these ideologues raise concerns about human rights violations. When Naxals
kill innocent people, they are completely silent. They often function as negotiators when
the Naxals kidnap senior officials. This trend is visible in the attitude of reputed
University professors. They also form propaganda/disinformation machinery of the party.
They stridently take up issues like ‘displacement of tribals’, ‘corporate exploitation’,
‘human rights violations’ by security forces etc., and often make fantastic claims in this
regard which get reported well in the mainstream media. The frontal organisations also
skillfully use State structures and legal processes to further their agenda and weaken the
State mechanism. Important functions of these organisations include recruitment of
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‘professional revolutionaries’, raising funds for insurgency, creating safe houses for
underground cadres, providing legal assistance to arrested cadres and mass-mobilisation
by agitating over issues of relevance/convenience. They also have a strategic game-plan
of creating a ‘United Front’ with like-minded insurgent/terrorist outfits in India.
Ban on the Movement: The Maoists, the major Left Wing Extremist organization
responsible for more than 80% of the incidents of violence/casualties, has been included
in the Schedule of Terrorist Organizations, along with all its formations and frontal
organizations on 22 June, 2009 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 19673.
Government of India's Approach: 'Police' and 'Public Order' being State subjects, the
responsibility for maintaining law and order is primarily the domain of the State
Governments. The Central Government closely monitors the situation and supplements
and coordinates States efforts in several ways. The Government’s approach is to deal
with Left Wing Extremism in a holistic manner, in the areas of security, development,
ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities, improvement in governance,
especially service delivery mechanism, and public perception management. After various
high-level deliberations and interactions with States concerned, a detailed analysis of the
spread and trends of Left Wing Extremist violence has been made. On its basis, 106
districts in nine States have been taken up for special attention with regard to planning,
implementation and monitoring various interventions to curb the Maoist menace.
Specific measures taken by the Central Government:
Review and monitoring mechanisms: A number of review and monitoring
mechanisms have been put in place by the Government of India in this regard and the
Ministry of Home Affairs monitors the situation on a regular basis at various levels.
Strengthening the intelligence gathering mechanism: In order to counter the
growing challenge of LWE activities, several steps have been taken to strengthen and
upgrade the capabilities of intelligence agencies at the Central and State levels. These
include intelligence sharing through Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) at the Central and
State levels, and Multi Agency Centre (SMAC) at the subsidiary level on a 24x7 basis.
3 The Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section-3, Sub-section (ii) dated June 22, 2009.
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Better inter-state coordination: The area of operation of the Maoist cadres is not
confined to one single State. It is often spread over two or more States. Government of
India has taken a number of steps to improve inter-state coordination which includes
frequent meetings and interactions between the official machinery of the bordering
districts of Left Wing Extremism affected States across the country. States such as Bihar,
Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra are particularly vulnerable to Naxal
violence. Interestingly, West Bengal where it originated ceased to be on their radar now.
Tackling the challenge of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs): IED is the
most potent weapon in the hands of Maoists. The Union Home Ministry has formulated a
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on ‘Issues related to Explosives/IEDs/Landmines in
naxal affected areas’ and the same has been circulated to the stakeholders for compliance.
Strengthening of air support: State Governments and the Central Armed Police
Forces (CAPFs) have been provided with enhanced air support in terms of UAVs and
helicopters for anti-naxal operations, including evacuation of causalities/injured persons.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA’S INTERVENTIONS
A. Security Related Measures
Deployment of the CAPFs: Battalions of the CAPFs/Naga Battalions (BNs) are
deployed for assisting the State Police in the LWE affected States. Three Battalions of
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are proposed to be deployed in Chhattisgarh shortly.
Additional battalions of CAPFs are provided to the LWE affected States to the extent
possible depending upon the severity of insurgency operations, availability of forces,
requests of the State Government and related factors.
India Reserve (IR)/Specialised India Reserve Battalion (SIRB): Naxal affected States
have been sanctioned 45 IR battalions mainly to strengthen their security apparatus and
also to enable the States to provide gainful employment to youth, particularly in the
severely affected belts. In addition, Government has sanctioned raising of nine new
SIRBs in some LWE States. SIRB has 2 companies of engineering component to assist
the forces in creating infrastructure such as roads, barracks, police stations, etc.
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Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme: Under the Security Related Expenditure
scheme, funds are provided for meeting the recurring expenditure relating to insurance,
training and operational needs of the security forces, rehabilitation of Left Wing
Extremist cadres who surrender, community policing, security related infrastructure for
village defence committees and publicity material to create awareness against violence.
Construction/Strengthening of Fortified Police Stations: The Ministry of Home
Affairs has been implementing a scheme to assist State Governments in the
construction/strengthening of 400 Fortified Police Stations @ Rs. 2.00 crore per police
station in the Naxal affected districts on 80:20 (Centre share: State share) basis. So far,
278 fortified Police Stations have been constructed. The Ministry has initiated another
phase in which 250 more police stations will be fortified @ Rs. 2.50 crore per station.
Scheme for Special Infrastructure (SSI): This Scheme was started during the 11th
Plan
period with 100% funding by the Centre for filling up critical infrastructure gaps, not be
covered under any other scheme. The Scheme was continued during the 12th
Plan Period
with a new objective of funding training infrastructure, residential infrastructure,
weaponry, vehicles etc. for upgrading and filling critical gaps of Special Forces of the
LWE affected States. The funding pattern was changed from 100% by the Centre to cost
sharing at 75:25 ratio between Centre and States. This scheme continued upto 2014-15. It
has since been delinked from central assistance following the recommendations of the
14th Finance Commission raising devolution of funds to States from 32% to 42%.
B. Development Related Measures:
Monitoring and Implementation of Flagship Programmes: Implementation of
flagship programmes is closely monitored by an Empowered Committee under the MHA.
Integrated Action Plan (IAP)/ Additional Central Assistance (ACA): The NITI
Aayog (the then Planning Commission) had commenced the IAP in 2010-11 covering 60
Tribal and Backward districts for accelerated development by providing public
infrastructure and services. The Scheme was extended to 82 districts in 2012. From 2012-
13, the scheme was renamed as ACA and extended to 88 districts covering 76 LWE
affected districts. The major works included under IAP/ACA relate to construction of
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Schools, Anganwadi centers, drinking water facilities, construction of rural roads,