Unified Command A Promising Step
The idea of a unified command among states — announced by Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday — to deal with the range of issues thrown up in the fight against left-wing extremism is self-evident. The surprise is it took so long for the Centre and some states to institutionalise it. The challenge posed by Naxalites, who typically operate in regions that are mineral rich and have strong populations of tribal forest dwellers who are extremely poor, is a complex one. Only a sophisticated response will do. The Maoist menace has become more multi-dimensional in recent years. The weapons that the Naxals use are often more advanced that those handled by the police. The organisation and deployment of Maoist cadres now speaks of careful thought and training. In the past, the Naxals were urban middle class revolutionaries who travelled to the hinterland to arouse the poor. Now it is the poor themselves who have taken up arms under the leadership of urban outsiders. The phenomenon suggests that the question of development needs to be addressed urgently. This must be the vital complement of a well thought out and carefully crafted police strategy.
The unified command, if its implementation is trouble-free, has the potential to marry development and security-related concerns on the ground. Both dimensions were adequately articulated in the speech of Prime Minister Manomohan Singh when the unified command was created. In attendance were the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the Jharkhand governor (the state now being under President’s Rule), and a senior minister from West Bengal (CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stayed away), besides the
It is a happy sign that states that have agreed to the unified command are run by parties as diverse as the BJP, the CPI(M)-led Left and the BJD. This gives the effort a political and ideological wholeness, not to say a shared purpose and sense of responsibility. Equally, the pooled efforts of these parties signifies a commitment from a wide swathe of the political spectrum to the uplift of the poor in tribal areas. This is an important signal to give.
Source : http://www.asianage.com/editorial/unified-command-promising-step-382
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