Click to play videoThe decapitated body of a Jharkhand police officer, who had been abducted by Maoists and was sought to be swapped for three of their leaders including Kobad Ghandy, was found on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway on Tuesday morning.
Francis Induwar, who worked as an intelligence official in the Special Branch, had been kidnapped on September 30. The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) left a pamphlet claiming the killing, a police official said.
Reacting to the incident, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the Government is determined to stamp out Naxalism.
In West Bengal, too, the government is taking a strong stand against Naxals with intellectuals who support arrested activist Chatradhar Mahato facing possible police investigation. Meanwhile, policemen in Jharkhand say they are simply not getting enough security in their fight against Naxals.
With Naxals proving to be the biggest internal security threat CNN-IBN's Face The Nation debated: Naxals behead a policeman – have Naxals become India's Taliban?
The panel of experts to debate the issue included Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Central Committee member Nilotpal Basu; Editor-In-Chief, The Pioneer, Chandan Mitra, former DGP, Tamil Nadu, Walter Devaram and Professor of Sociology, Delhi University, Nandini Sundar.
At the beginning of the debate, 88 per cent agreed that Naxals have become India's Taliban, while 12 per cent disagreed.
Naxal menace
Naxalism, what once began as a legitimate movement for justice has now become criminalised and is spiralling out of control and perpetuating a cycle of violence.
Sundar kick-started the debate by saying that though she believed all should condemn the violence and the killings being carried out by the Naxals, it is unfair to label them as a criminal group.
"It is sociologically ridiculous to say that Naxals are the new Taliban as they are two very different organisations in terms of their ideologies," she said.
She further said that it's not just the Naxals who have carried out cold-blooded murders but also the Government, but they cannot be compared to the Taliban. She said there have been cold-blooded murders on all sides but the need of the hour was to go forward to talk about peace.
"We have a number of cases in which according to the National Human Rights Commission and Child Rights Commission the policemen have killed innocent villagers and have just left the bodies to rot," she said.
Basu agreed with Sundar about the characterisation of Naxals. "We think they are a political entity but they are increasingly acting in a fascist manner resembling terrorist activities," he said.
Mitra said it was appalling to suggest that the Government should be equated with an outlawed movement, which is violently trying to overthrow the state. "In a democracy there is no place for violence," he said.
Intellectual sympathy
Controversy is also raging in West Bengal over the arrest of chief of a Maoist-backed body Chhatradhar Mahato in Lalgarh. A number of intellectuals have written to the West Bengal government asking for Mahato's release and also pointing out that the police should rethink the manner in which they arrested Mahato.
Basu strongly put forth the view that if intellectuals act in a manner which promotes criminal activities then they are liable to be charged under the law.
"Somebody being an intellectual does not insulate somebody from actions which follow from their activities which have criminal implications," he said.
Mitra said it is CPM which was the father of all these movements. "The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation originally, when the first Naxalite movement began in this country, they are breakaway factions of the CPI-M who have often patronised them," he said.
The war against Naxals
Thirty-six policemen were killed in Chhattisgarh in 2009. The Home Minister on Tuesday said that the Government is ready to wipe out Naxalism after Induwar's body was found. But experts say the Government needs to provide the police with infrastructure and not just give statements.
Devaram said it was the best opportunity to strike at the Naxals. It is not the Central but the state government, which has to strike, and there is need for Centre-state coordination in this matter.
"It is the best opportunity when a police officer has been killed as the public sympathy is bound to be with the police and this opportunity should be utilised to strike at them," he said.
Mitra agreed and said that he was glad that Chidambaram and the Prime Minister have declared Naxalism as the greater threat to India's unity. He emphasised that there is no other way to deal with such terror.
"There is no alternative. They only terrorise people and to counter terror they have to be wiped out. That is the only way these kinds of insurgent movements have been wiped out in every other country in the world," he said.
Sundar said though nothing justifies violence, using terror could jeopardise the long-term interest of the state. "Using terror to counter non-state actors is a very short term way of looking at things," she said.
Mitra strongly disagreed with Sundar. He concluded the debate by saying that the Naxals didn't believe in democracy and in fact believe in boycotting the state. "The people who don't play by the rules of democracy cannot be treated by the rules of only democracy," he said.
Final results of the SMS/Web poll: Naxals behead a policeman – have Naxals become India's Taliban?
Yes: 89 per cent
No: 11 per cent
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