Understanding Indian Insurgencies

[Ray]

This thread has posts on the Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh and an ambush this week has led to renewed local press commentary. So what was different with this ambush?

Answer - politics:

Politics plus revenge are not a good mix:

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...illing-23.html

Having Israeli-supplied drones, flown by the Air Force, has a few local problems - poor quarters for the pilots - and there remains:

Link:http://www.firstpost.com/india/exclu...rh-816465.html

This typifies motivated reporting.

Salwa Judum means “Peace March” or “Purification Hunt’ in Gondi language, which is a tribal language. This was raised with local tribal youth to counter the Maoist violence and was assisted by the Chattisgarh Govt. The person who was killed and who founded this organisation was himself a tribal! That he was a very popular person was exhibited by the unprecedented and massive turnout of tribal people at his funeral!

The Maoists have repeatedly prevented the Govt from doing any constructive work in the areas the Maoist control and have prevented electricity, road, water supply constructions reaching the tribal areas. They attack all efforts to put up TV transmission towers (terrestrial TV) in order to keep the tribal belt ignorant of the happenings around the country and progress planned.

The Supreme Court of India passed a judgement, on a plea from the Human Rights organisations, that the militia is unconstitutional, and ordered its disbanding.

It has to be said that Human Rights organisations in India are more of ‘wannabes’ attempting to clone themselves on western concepts without a shred of knowledge of the issues since they operate from air conditioned offices in Delhi with occasional forays in the danger zones on Maoist sponsored conducted tours. Likewise, the Judges have no experience of insurgency or counter insurgency and hence their judgement on these issues is more academic than practical.

Also interesting is that the so called Human Rights NGOs and the Judges conveniently forget the havoc, murder, loot and killing the Maoists are indulging in these areas and make no mention of the same. There are even those who glibly laud the Maoist and their activities! Even on National TV!

It maybe added that one Binayak Sen, who was promoting Maoist sympathies and literature and assisting Maoist overtly was jailed. However, under the barrage of international bigwigs and intellectuals and Pollyannas, he was released. What is most surprising is that the Govt of India, which is also battling Naxals and Maoists, appointed this very same man as a Member of the Planning Commission (the supreme body that decides and suggest national policies to the Govt of India)!

The whole problem is that there is a total lack of political will to fight the Maoists and Naxal and instead meander like a rudderless leaky boat with the cox having gone off to sleep at the rudder.

On the issue of Drones, there are very few available to carry out 24 x 7 surveillance over all areas of strategic importance to India, to include the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal as also sensitive areas in the massive land mass of India. Yet, the knowalls are ready to excoriate all concerned and nitpick, conveniently missing the woods for the trees and misinforming the readers!

[Red Rat]

Interesting analysis of Security Force problems in Chhattisgarh.

Praveen Swami is probably one to track on twitter feed for those interested in the situation there.

Chhattisgarh Attack: Why India is losing its war against the Naxals

[Ray]

Interesting analysis of Security Force problems in Chhattisgarh.

Praveen Swami is probably one to track on twitter feed for those interested in the situation there.

Chhattisgarh Attack: Why India is losing its war against the Naxals

With a caveat that he is a journalist and has no hands on experience, unlike many western journalists who have had military training and experience and can understand issues more incisively.

Notwithstanding, he is more knowledgeable amongst journalists on security issues.

[davidbfpo]

At an academic seminar one speaker posed the question: Are the Naxalites or AQ a bigger threat to global security?

The discussion that followed, without any Indians present, remarked on the spread of the Naxalites, citing quite a high % of India's land mass being affected. Then the reluctance of the central government to even talk about the problem, let alone take action.

So the following comments by a "lurker" help to understand:

The real reasons are the constitutional arrangement in which the Central Government. has no direct role in CT or law & order action in the twenty-eight states except when providing extra manpower at the states' request and this has resulted in a highly fragmented police & CT machinery. Secondly the inability of the State Police to meet the trans-state or trans-national terrorist challenges due to poor training and that the State politicians object to Central Government initiatives on law & order and CT action.

[Ray]

It is being treated as a State issue since law and order is under the jurisdiction of the State.

If it were to be taken as terrorism, then it would be an Union Govt responsibility.

[davidbfpo]

Elsewhere on SWJ mention has been made pf the apparent absence of an internal jihadist activity when compared to the size of India's Muslim minority, so Stephen Tankel's latest offering 'Jihadist Violence: The Indian Threat' may help understanding. I have not read the paper yet; the summary says:

India faces many well-known challenges, from corruption to environmental degradation. A lesser-noted challenge is domestic militancy. This new study, produced by noted South Asia security expert Stephen Tankel, focuses on the Indian Mujahideen (IM)--a loosely organized indigneous Islamist militant network. IM, Prof. Tankel argues, is "an internal security issue with an external dimension." Its leadership is currently based in Pakistan, but the organization represents a response to Indian domestic failings.

Link:http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publicat...-indian-threat

[davidbfpo]

A "lurker" has responded and pointed to a 2009 academic conference paper by a retired Indian police / intelligence official. The paper takes a broad approach and contains some "gems" on Indian terrorism - especially on how officialdom has responded:

Since the outbreak of modern day terrorism in India in the early 1980s, our counter-terrorist policy has been stymied by a constant refrain from experts and government agencies that all terrorism in India including Sikh militancy were only the result of religious or ideological subversion from abroad, especially Pakistan. This was based on an illusory political hypothesis that Indian citizens by themselves were unsympathetic to militancy in their country and needed to be prodded from outside. At various stages even North East militancy or Maoist violence was branded as inspired from abroad.