The Congress on Saturday sought the Government to draft a new Naxal policy to deal with left-wing-extremism (LWE) in the backdrop of the recent attack on a police team in Jharkhand.
Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister of the Congress-led-government at the Centre had time and again described the LWE as one of the biggest threats to the National Security even though incidents linked to Maoist violence did not see a let-up in 10 years of UPA regime.
Condemning the attack in the Seraikela-Kharsawan area near the Jharkhand-Bengal border on Friday in which five police personnel were killed in an ambush by Maoists, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala Surjewala said the act was highly condemnable.
"The cowardly face of Naxalism has been spreading in Jharkhand. The government of this country needs to draft afresh its policy to deal with naxalism," he tweeted.
Two assistant sub-inspectors and three constables came under attack while patrolling the Tiruldih police station area of the district.
The LWE in several states including Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra had kept the police and para-military forces on their toes and even though many top Naxal leaders have been eliminated in the past and several others surrendered themselves before the authorities, the strikes from the underground groups have continued to take many a lives of police and para-military personnel.
From 2005 to 2011, Congress had experimented with 'Salwa Judum' (peace march or purification hunt) which involved countering Maoists by providing armed training to tribals. The so-called experiment carried out by Congress leader Mahendra Karma later turned highly controversial with alleged forcible evacuation of tribals from the land and their shift to armed camps.
Human rights' group criticized the move saying the ‘Salwa Judum’ has turned poor tribals more vulnerable to Maoist attacks rather securing them. Subsequently, the 'Salwa Judum' was declared illegal by the Supreme Court. Karma himself got killed in a Maoist attack in 2013.
There has not been a marked change in Modi-government's policy towards LWE with the former also seeing LWE as one of the biggest challenges to the National Security and insisting on 'zero tolerance' against it.
Development work across the LWE infested lands has not made speedy progress as Maoist repeatedly thwart it by perpetuating violence and try foiling the government attempts to bring tribals into the 'mainstream' . The corruption in developmental projects initiated by the central and state governments and alleged 'extortion racket' by LWE groups have further complicated the scenario which gets time and again alive with the burst of gun from both sides.
