Introduction :-
The left extremist outburst, later known as the Naxalite movement, started in
March 1967 in the three police station areas (Naxalbari, Khoribari and
Phansidewa) of Darjeeling district in West Bengal .The major features of left
wing extemism (LWE) are :
While the goal of the left extremists was to actualize their own vision of the
State through revolution, they chose to usher that revolution by enlisting the
support of the deprived and exploited sections of society particularly in areas
where such sections constituted a significant part of the population.It is,
therefore, necessary to identify the reasons for such deprivation and
consequent discontent.The cases are:-
Social Exclusion:-
Denial of dignity.
Incompetent, ill trained and poorly motivated public personnel who are
mostly absent from their place of posting.
Legislative Factors:-
The Forest Act, 1927 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 along with
stringent Supreme Court orders have turned forests into prohibited areas for
the tribals, creating serious imbalances in their lives and livelihoods.
This has turned the tribals against governments methods of forest
management, and gradually against government itself.This discontent has
provided fertile ground for the spread of left extremism among tribals living in
forest areas.
Analysis
Faithful, fair and just implementation of laws and programmes for social
justice will go a long way to remove the basic causes of resentment among
aggrieved sections of society.
Solution
It vests land rights to the extent of four hectares per Forest Dwelling
Scheduled Tribe (FDST) nuclear family provided they have been the user of
forest land for four generations or 75 years from the cut off date i.e.
December 13, 2005. This right is heritable but not alienable and transferable.
Considering the nexus between food insecurity and disaffection with the
State, it is necessary that the non-functioning public distribution system is
revived by strengthening organisations like LAMP (Large Area Multipurpose
Cooperative Societies) to replace privately owned fair price shops and to
implement decentralized schemes for procurement and distribution of food-
grains etc.
Better training on empathy and conflict resolution programs with tribal facets
and tribal culture study as its primary .
Opinions vary about the role of civil society organisations in bringing about
peace in conflict situations particularly in cases of left extremism because
many such organizations are alleged to have a leftist ideological orientation
(without necessarily sharing the violent objectives of the extremists) and, in
some cases, the NGO may even be a front for the extremists themselves.
While there may be some black sheep among these organisations, there is
little doubt that they have the potential to act as a bridge between the
extremists and the government and in educating the people about the futility
of violence and preventing aggravation of the situation by ventilating public
grievances within the legal-democratic framework
Naxalite raise their fund through extortion, illegal mining operation etc and
there exist a vast nexus of contractor-transporter-extremist .This has to be
curtailed
One way to ensure that development funds do not reach the extremists is by
entrusting these works temporarily to organisations like the Border Roads
Organisation and other governmental agencies which can execute these
works directly. This is recommended as a purely temporary measure and not
to stifle local private entrepreneurship.