NEW DELHI: India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram accepted Wednesday that India had for long underestimated the threat posed by Maoists, which today had become a “grave challenge.”
While answering questions in the upper house, Chidambaram said: “Plans are being drawn up in close consultation with state governments. We have also appointed a military adviser (to prepare an action plan for dealing with Maoists).”
“Regrettably for many years we did not properly assess the threat posed by left-wing extremism. We underestimated the challenge and in the meanwhile they (Naxalites) extended their influence,” Chidambaram said.
In the past five years, Maoist rebels have emerged as the most potent threat to India’s internal stability and left the authorities groping for a response to their increasingly audacious attacks.
With an ambush last weekend that killed 30 police, the leftist insurgents demonstrated their ability to strike with apparent impunity and then melt back into their rural hideouts before anyone can react.
India’s police are ill-equipped and sometimes afraid to fight Maoist guerrillas, experts said on Wednesday.
Experts described as a glaring example of policemen ignoring combat safety doctrine during this week’s ambush in Chhattisgarh. “If you don’t follow the rules of the red light while driving, you will surely meet an accident ... if the police do not follow the basics of jungle warfare, they will continue to meet the same fate,” B.K. Ponwar, head of a state-run jungle warfare institute in central India, told Reuters. “Policemen are flouting the jungle warfare rules over and again.” The government banned the Communist Party of India (Maoist) last month, but experts say the ban will have little impact in the battle against the rebels.
While the economic impact may be small compared with India’s trillion dollar economy, the insurgency and the sense that it is worsening signals that India does not fully control its own territory and adds to risks for companies mulling investments.
Nearly 500 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed in Maoist violence this year so far compared with 700 in all of 2008, government data says.
Senior officers who analyzed more than 1,100 incidents of Maoist violence this year say police have often walked into traps laid by the rebels without carrying mine detection equipment, sniffer dogs or adequate firepower. On the ground, police fight Maoist insurgents with outdated weapons and are often outnumbered by rebels, who are skilled in jungle warfare and are well-equipped with rocket launchers, automatic rifles and explosives.
The rebels are estimated to have 22,000 fighters, and have spread to more than 180 of the country’s 630 districts from just 56 in 2001, government and independent data shows. The Maoists started their armed struggle in West Bengal’s Naxalbari town in late 1967, and have expanded their support among villagers by tapping into resentment at the government’s recent pro-industry push.
The Maoists, described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the biggest internal security threat, regularly attack police posts as well as railway lines and factories, aiming to cripple economic activity.
“It is a big mindgame that the Maoists play with the police and they use hit-and-run tactics to scare everyone,” said Kuldiep Singh, a senior police officer leading anti-Maoist operations in West Bengal state.
