National Strategy Required to Counter Left Wing Extremism: Lt Gen VK Ahluwalia

June 05, 2014

New Delhi: A National Strategy –– involving governance, development, empowerment and security –– is the basic prerequisite for resolving the challenge posed by Naxalism/Left Wing Extremism in the country, Lt Gen VK Ahluwalia (Retd) said, on June 5, 2014, while delivering a talk at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on the theme, “Future of the Naxalite Movement”. Author of a recently published book entitled ‘Red Revolution 2020 and beyond: Strategic Challenges to Resolve Naxalism’, he is presently Member, Armed Forces Tribunal, Jaipur Bench.

The national strategy should spell out key strategic challenges that need to be addressed for conflict resolution, Lt Gen Ahluwalia observed. Some of the major challenges include achieving national consensus on the Naxal issue, achieving inclusive growth, perception management, prevention of the further spatial spread of Naxalism, empowerment of youth, implementation of development initiatives, isolation from external support, capacity building of the Security Forces and proper implementation of the already existing legislations dealing with tribal rights.

Describing Naxalism as a grass-root movement stemming out of abject poverty, deprivation, exploitation, injustice and poor socio-economic conditions of an area, Lt Gen VK Ahluwalia said one of the key drivers that could pose a challenge to security and stability is demographic growth. India has one of the largest youth population in the world today and is bound to rise further in the years to come. It is, therefore, important to engage the youth, particularly from the Naxal affected areas, in a constructive and positive manner.
Some of the indicators of major concern in Naxalite affected areas are poverty, lack of education facilities, low literacy levels, unemployment, land ownership, food security, etc. Naxalite affected areas have over 42-45 per cent of the forest cover of the country and enormous mineral wealth.
Non implementation of land reform laws, archaic forest laws, corrupt and repressive administration have made the situation worse for the downtrodden, especially the tribals, in these regions, insisted the speaker. This, coupled with illegal and uncontrolled mining activities, clearance of forests for timber, construction of dams and carting away land to big industries have led to large scale displacement of the indigenous tribes, without any proper rehabilitation programme.

Lt Gen Ahluwalia further said, “The Maoists are clear that the liberation of urban areas would form the last stage of their revolution, the centre of gravity being the urban working class. The Maoists in their grand strategy have enumerated plans for spread of their ideology and movement amongst the working class in the semi-urban / urban areas. They see the urban areas as the centers of power of the ‘ruling class,’ whom they plan to overthrow to capture political power.”

He said, “The Maoists have also analysed the use of cyber warfare, which is more intended to be used in the urban environment due to higher penetration of the internet in such areas.”He warned that the Maoists “probably intend to target vital installations, crucial networks like financial networks, security networks and essential services, which today run on internet and social networks to profess their ideology and spread their propaganda.”

As Army Commander, Central Command, (2010-12), Lt Gen Ahluwalia was involved in analysing the problem of Naxalism, ground realities and strategic challenges for conflict resolution. Out of the large number of states that form part of the area of responsibility of the Central Command, four states, namely Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Bihar, and Odisha are critically affected by Naxalism.