On April 6th 2010 in a gruesome and bloodiest attack so far Naxalites killed 76 CRPF men in forests of Mukrana (Dantewada distt of Chattisgarh). To the Nation it meant a loss of few valiant soldiers from the existing lot, but to their families they lost their bread winner and most importantly their dear son.
Chandramouleshwar Reddy coming from Rayalseema village in Andhra Pradesh battled all through his life against poverty but his battle came to an abrupt end when he along with his 75 other fellow soldiers fell to the Maoists bullets on April 6th. He left behind 2 school going children, a wife and his ageing parents who still can’t believe that nature has played such cruel game with them. To die while protecting the sovereignty of the Nation is every soldier’s dream, but alas! On April 6th those 76 CRPF men didn’t die in a counter insurgency operation against Naxalites. They were gunned down in the early hours of morning while they were resting in their camps. The jawans of 62 battalion of CRPF turned out to be sitting ducks for the blood thirsty Maoists who made headlines by carrying out this cowardly attack on unsuspecting and ill prepared CRPF jawans.
Our prime minister declared the Naxalite problem as single biggest threat to the security of the nation way back in 2006, but little progress has been made to counter the growth of this obnoxious weed of naxalism. Home ministry puts the death toll in naxalite violence since 2006 as more than 2800(and still counting), these numbers depict an immensely brutal story of maoist violence in India. The numbers are shocking as well as depressing at the same time, almost 220 districts in India belonging to 22 different states are suffering from naxalite attacks, accounting for 40% India’s geographical area. Unfortunately the ground realities don’t compliment the big assurances that come from the ministry of Home affairs. The forces employed to tackle Naxalites in India lack both the capability as well as the facilities to tackle Naxalities. 24 battalions have been deployed in Chattisgarh -14 from CRPF, and five each from BSF and ITBP however it is well known that around 8-10 more battalions are required for the security forces to dominate. An Hindustan Times story (Are these Men up to it?- April 11 2010) mentions that distance between 2 CRPF camps is 15-30 km, if there is an attack on one CRPF camp the reinforcements are not expected to reach in time. The forces working in the plains of Dantewada live in most adverse conditions possible for defense forces. There is a complete lack of basic amenities for security forces situated there, no proper housing facilities, no clean drinking water available and besides this there is a severe shortage of proper sanitation facilities. Lakhwinder Singh, a jawan posted at Chintagufa says “Even if we want to take an ailing comrade to nearby hospital the Naxalities would blow our vehicle off”. This statement is a serious cause to worry because under such unhygienic conditions diseases like malaria and brain fever are found to be extremely common. It is hard to imagine that troops that have been employed to tackle “single biggest threat to national security” are being provided with such deplorable living conditions and then to expect the CRPF men to overpower Naxalities under such conditions would be mere foolishness. The news story that a committee headed by a former CRPF DGP to look into the 6th April Dantewada massacre came under heavy attack from Naxalities speaks volumes about the hold and dominance that Naxalities have in these areas. Wikipedia claims that Naxalities have virtual control over an estimated area of 92,000 sq kilometers which is popularly termed as the Red corridor. The gravity of the situation is alarming and can be easily ascertained from the fact that Naxalities annually collect around 1500 crore rupees through extortions, kidnappings, etc in order to run their operations in India. These figures are far worse than what Government wants us to believe. Maoists are attempting to take over all the rich mining areas in Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and Madhya pradesh which would mean that development work would very obviously take a back seat in these areas, which are already suffering from lack of development from past so many years. Such atmosphere where there is a lack of proper education system and an absence of growth and development it is easy to brain wash people against the state and convince them to take up arms against Govt. under the pretext of demanding justice for poor people. This Maoist insurgency is leading India to a death by bleeding through a thousand cuts, a slow but sure death. On top of that the current counter-insurgency strategy employed against Naxals is doing more harm to the security forces than to the Naxalites. The strategy such as ‘clear, hold and develop is found unsuccessful here, the reason being lack of knowledge of the terrain amongst security forces, gross shortage of condign resources, ill trained soldiers and minimal reinforcement chances. Unfortunately these circumstances give a cumulative effect as seen on 6th April in Dantewada.
Whenever our brave security people are slaughtered at the hands of Naxalites the entire blame is placed on ‘intelligence failure, lack of coordination between central and state forces and neglect of standard operating procedures. However, under the current circumstances the debacle like Dantewada are bound to occur again and we would still refuse to learn from our mistakes. But alas! It would again be our brave soldiers in CPMF (central paramilitary forces) who would be made the sacrificial lambs. Sometimes I wonder that how unfortunate these CRPF men are, they are paid peanuts, don’t have basic amenities which are easily available to other elite forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations across the Globe and then they are made to fight an enemy who is better prepared, has tremendous resources to last them through this never ending war, is high on confidence and is excessively lethal in its attack. This situation reminds me of the title of a Tom Cruise starrer Hollywood movie “Lions for Lambs”. Indeed we are feeding our brave heart Lions (security forces) to these cowardly lambs (Naxlalites).
