The Wages of Sin…

Are visible with each passing day. The Indian State in barely a year and a half after the UPA came to power has rendered itself pliable to regular outbreaks of terrorist violence. Earthquakes didn’t deter freedom fighters terrorists, and now likewise, elections haven’t dimm’d the spirit of our comrades.

Naxalites on Sunday night stormed Jehanabad district, 45 kilometres from Patna killing at least 12 people and triggering a fierce gun-battle with the police.

[Rediff.com]

The equally pliant Home Minister is as usual, fumbling for words.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had a tough time at the Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting here today when members raised the naxal attack at Jehanabad areas in Bihar.[...] Patil, who had a tough time in pacifying the members into silent, said the Government was looking into the issue and the Government’s priorities was to ensure safety of those abducted by the naxals from jail and book the culprits, the sources said.

This should count as the most daring terrorist act ever by these demented “revolutionaries.” By marauding the jail itself, these scumbags have sent out no small message. As the Indian Express ed says:

…with Operation Jehanabad the Maoists have thrown down the gauntlet to the Centre.

In the (infamous) IIPM parlance, their message to the Indian State goes on the lines of rok sako to rok lo. The Slimes’ report also reveals some shocking–if the situation wasn’t this grave, it’d be hilarious–stuff:

Pamphlets left by the Naxalites at the jail which were recovered by the police said ‘Operation Jailbreak’ was deliberately made to coincide with the great November 13 Russian revolution and its aim was to “rescue our comrades and to award death penalty to select Ranvir Sena activists” lodged in the jail.

Their grandoise dream of carving a Red Corridor stretching from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh is–if this incident is any evidence–slowly inching towards realization. Which should worry every sensible Indian citizen. My two-month-old prophecy is therefore on the spot:

The only solution our “statesmen” seem to think of is clouded by short-sightedness, and consequently, they become short-term solutions. 15 killed in Jharkhand: send out cops there, make them wait for the next ambush-don’t the Naxals know better than that?-and if nothing happens for 3 months, withdraw the contingent. Meanwhile, innocent lives would have been lost elsewhere.

As usual, our Home department looked the other way while the Maoists were busy plotting. And now like always they “admit there was a security lapse (sic).” An example of the result of a perfectly planned and executed project:

Nearly a thousand Naxalites armed with weapons like self-loading rifles and machine guns and clad in police uniforms, launched near simultaneous assaults on the police lines, jail and a CRPF camp located in the heart of the South Bihar town around 9 PM.

Op-eds lament about the Congress party’s soft line on curbing the Naxal menace. Actually, I’d like to think that the enemy is within: the Left’s irresponsible “outside” support. In my limited perusal of news, I’m yet to come across any article that bothered to investigate in depth the secret dalliance that transpired between Com Karat and Com Baburam Bhattarai more than 5 months ago. What did they discuss? Was that meeting a precursor to this attack? Accuse me of spinning wild conspiracy theories but there is more than what meets the eye. Consider this: Indian Maoists receive weapons from their Nepali brethren and the two have together carried out attacks. That Indian intelligence agencies are aware of this but are powerless unable to do anything speaks of a clandestine, sinister script.

The real culprits however, are in what we call “civil” society operating as university professors, mediamen, and students, adorned with such variegated titles as “Doctor,” “Professor,” “Activist,” “Social Worker,” “Thinker,” “Intellectual….” It is rare to find a Leftist leader–Karat/Yechury and Co–openly support Naxalite attacks. It is the academic Leftists who also moonlight as “columnists/op-ed writers” that accomplish this task for them. About 7-8 months ago, a group of Naxals killed several policemen in a town in Karnataka. The response from these worthies was almost instantaneous–on they went with their usual approving tones, that the “state” deserved it. A local (Kannada) tabloid till this day attributes Naxalite deaths to police brutality. In this tabloid’s view, every police vs Naxal battle where the latter is killed is always viewed as a fake/staged encounter. The backlash against these worthies finally unmasked them for what they are. As an example of such perverted analyses, this “article” seeks to place the blame on the British Colonial government (!) thereby absolving Mao’s terrorists:

The Dalits and the “Ati Pichhada” (most backward) castes have been in servitude to the upper castes for years. This stems from the land revenue collection system put in place by the British, called Permanent Settlement.

This was a grand contract between the East India Company and later Queen Victoria’s administration and the then undivided Bengal landholders, by which they were admitted into the colonial state system as the absolute proprietors of landed property.

One is forced to conclude from all these episodes that the government, especially the Congress party is indifferent to the growing Naxal threat, that its preoccupation is only with retaining power. Today, more than at any time in the past, the country faces grave security threats while the government has steadfastly closed its eyes hoping it’ll go away. Dr. Singh’s tough pronouncements on tackling terror should be accompanied by action. God save the day the Communists come to power in India.