18
The Red Corridor
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: India (3), Politics (5), WTF (14) | May 18th, 2010
Scenario 01: Two friends, barely out of graduation, get selected for a postmaster’s job. They break for lunch, and decide to have a simple meal at the tiny dhaba across the road. No sooner than they leave the post-office that bullets start flying around them, and a fierce gun battle starts between insurgents and the CRPF. They duck their heads and run for cover.
Scenario 02: A bank manager drives to work, looking furtively around him for attackers. He goes to the bank, locks up all the doors from inside. For any customer to enter, they have to identify themselves before the locks can be opened. He tries to make the 50 km journey back home before dark – it would be too dangerous otherwise.
These are not scenes copied from Sholay, and the setting is not militant-infested Kashmir. The two kids are my brother’s friends, and the banker is my father. For them, this is just any other day in a tiny village of interior Orissa. Bridges getting blown off, railway tracks torn off are all absorbed with just a nod of the head. Commonplace.
Sounds incredulous, isn’t it?
We are talking about the home-bred, in-house gang of terrorists, AKA Maoists. The Maoist Movement which began as a simple fight for tribal justice has taken on alarming proportions. No longer can they be ignored as innocent tribals fighting for their rights, for food, for education. No longer can they classify themselves as Naxalites, guerrillas, or by any other damn name. They are terrorists, pure and simple.
The Maoist Empire is a staggering 1500 crore rupee corporation; their terror spans several states, most severely hit being Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, and Bihar. No, they don’t spend a penny to help their fellow men; on the contrary, they extort money from almost everyone, including school teachers. They kill at will, most often than not tagging their victims as police informers. You can get more information on the Maoist modus operandi here.
Bridges, schools, railway tracks, telephone towers, buildings, nothing can escape their wrath. Their latest attack, blowing up a bus with a landmine and killing over 40 people left me open mouthed. Chidambaram says they get their weapons from across the border, maybe from China, and Bangladesh. Ah, what sweet neighbors we have! Pakistan, China, Bangladesh – kudos to you people! It wasn’t enough that you took parts of our country with you, you had to continue poking at what’s left.
If all of this terror and violence is one side of the story, the other, more important one is how little we have done to combat it. They keep gunning our security personnel down like insects, they kill civilians, they smuggle heavy artillery from across the border right from under our nostrils, and all we do is fart out a “strong statement” saying we will not take it lightly. Manmohan Singh declared them as the most serious internal threat to India’s national security (Source: WIKI). Yeah, that should have them quivering and running for cover, right?
We have so many causes that get their quota of attention – Saving tigers, yes, they’re important. Treating animals ethically, well, they deserve it. Going green, good for the environment. Do it. But hey, can someone focus on this cause, too? Maybe get to move the government to take stricter measures. At the very least, no more killings. Pull some security personnel from the thousands allocated to all those fatso politicians and place them somewhere where they can feel a sense of pride that they’re involved in what they originally signed up for.
No more bloodshed, no more red. Let’s say goodbye to the red corridor. I, for one, hate it.
Raavan | June 10th, 2010 @ 1:07 pm |
Superb. Told from a personal perspective too. Retweeting it.
Asha Tampa | June 10th, 2010 @ 1:29 pm |
@Raavan – Made my day!
Dr Anurag | May 24th, 2010 @ 7:44 pm |
nice article … seems to the point n informative – plus it generates interest on the topic … good!!
still … the one thing that we Indians r good at is whining at our problems – the one thing we r really bad at though is putting forth solutions!!
what according to u wud b a socially, politically & financially viable plan to curb this menace??
Asha Tampa | May 24th, 2010 @ 7:48 pm |
Hey Doc! Thank you
Well… regarding what can be done, I can only say plugging the border, stop sweeping this under the carpet and make it a priority! These are for the government, btw! Personally, I’d say immediate plan of action would be to not actually go to The Red Corridor!
K | May 20th, 2010 @ 3:03 pm |
Smells more and more of Chinese … Get the Indian Army Embroiled in Controlling Maoists in Red Corridor , since you cannot denude the forces deployed in Western and Northern Border, India will end up lowering its guard on the Chinese Border to cater for requirements in Anti Maoist operations. Sun Tzu taught them well..and we have forgotten Chanakya at our own peril
Asha Tampa | May 20th, 2010 @ 3:14 pm |
I seriously cannot understand what’s stopping the govt to plug the entire border. If they target the naxals themselves, more numbers are going to sprout up. Why can’t they destroy the roots? The whole damn tree will fall then, right?
K | May 20th, 2010 @ 2:51 pm |
“The Maoist Movement which began as a simple fight for tribal justice” . No it wan’t, That was the Naxalbari movement which started in Naxalbari in North Bengal by the 3 stalwarts : Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal. and the party they founded was CPI(ML) (Marxist Leninist)..PWG came out of it. Maoists were a loose group which developed in Bihar (Called Southern Land because northern land for them is China). These two groups had their power struggles and finally merged in 2004 to become CPI(Maoist). Whats interesting is what happened to original founders? and whatever happened to Karl Marx and Lenin ..lol…they are out of vogue now and Mao is in.
Charu Majumdar died in custody in 1972 after being captured from his hideout
Jangal Santhal was jailed and released in 1979 and was disillusioned with what the movement had become and died an a couple of years later ; he turned into an alcoholic after release
Kanu Sanyal comitted suicide this year completely disillusioned with the movement
And movement ? got hijacked by TOP PWG brass from andhra (Kishenji et al) who run this Maoist empire and call shots in orissa, jharkhand, wb,chattisgarh as they have lost mass support in andhra which developed rather well compared to other states.
And nobody wants to talk about funding from China for strategic reasons in line with its grand strategy of dismembering india as they see India as a long term strategic threat economically and otherwise.
Asha Tampa | May 20th, 2010 @ 3:01 pm |
Ahh… your comment helped shed more light on this topic… Was not as aware of the origins. Kanu Sanyal died just recently, I recall; and I omitted his name out – can’t imagine why. Thanks for your comment Major… really helped
Sage YANDY | May 19th, 2010 @ 12:34 pm |
the only solution as i see it is called “Shock and Awe”…get in there and smoke em out…..if a gentlemen’s approach doesn’t work…..then what u gotta do u gotta do…brute force seems to be the only viable option….
Asha Tampa | May 19th, 2010 @ 3:38 pm |
I vote for an attack through air. Nothing else seems to work. And, a strict, very strict guard at the borders. Cut off their roots, their weapon supplies.
Sravan | May 19th, 2010 @ 11:54 am |
Ye, there needs attention than mere strong statements like one comic scene from a Telugu movie where Kota Srinivas keeps saying “memu khandistunnam” and when once stressed on some particular thing he emphasizes his line by addition of one word like “memu teevranga khandistunnam”… if not for words, i wish these politicians or the so called authorized personnel pay more attention to what can be done as an action item….
Not on some diff line that many started disliking or prevented their inclination towards hyd … “what the heck!” could be one exclamation we leave but i wish there were some real actions that any one here can do and help us see clean and green news scrolling lines on the tv or ….
Btw, where does your dad work? isnt it Pkd? if Yes, whats wrong with that place now
Asha Tampa | May 19th, 2010 @ 12:08 pm |
Hey Sravan, Dad got transferred from PKD quite some time ago, more than 6 yrs ago. Now he is stationed at a tiny village in Koraput District, which as you know, is in the news for all the wrong reasons.