Tackling The Red Taliban

News Flash, May 24, 2011 – Maoists kill 10 policemen in a landmine blast in the jungles of Gariaband, Chattisgarh, bodering on Orissa. The bodies of policemen were found in a mismembered state.

With this gruesome and dastardly act the Maoists have once again cocked a snook at the Indian state. The location of the incident also points at the spatial spread of the movement to hitherto unaffected regions.

Over the years the militant Maoist Movement has spread like cancer across the nation. It occupies an area of 92000 sq. km., and is spread across 20 of the 28 Indian States.

The Red Corridor spans from Bihar in the North to Kerala in the South, covering states like West Bengal, Orrisa, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. That is almost 40% of the Indian territory.
With 20, 000 armed militia and 50, 000 strongly indoctrinated cadres the uprising has proved troublesome for the State to tackle.

Gone are the days when the ML militia fought with country made guns, and rudimentary ammunition.
Today it has access to the most sophisticated arms in the market. The Maoist fund managers get their coffers filled from extortion, illegal mining and from across- the- border sympathizers.
The common enemies of the Indian State have joined hands with the Maoists. Thus while ULFA, Telengana activists and the Jihadi terrorists help the Red Brigade, the Maoists of Nepal are no less forthcoming in supporting their Indian compatriots.

The most sad part of the story is that the clandestine political patronage that Maoist Ultras receive from the political parties. Thus in Jharkhand the Shibu Soren government has had a tacit understanding with CPI (M) that has helped the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in the hustings. The Brigade has purportedly helped the party to win six of the eighteen Assembly seats in the 2010 elections.
And the irony is that Jharkhand is one of the worst affected state of Maoist violence.

Roots of the Maoists uprising lie in the neglect and underdevelopment of the rural areas. Grassroot local self government and district administration have failed to create growth conditions in the backwaters. Poverty and unemployement has provided a fertile ground for popular discontent, and police atrocities against incipient Maoist uprisings have added fuel to fire.

With the Central Government still searching for a proper growth model for the impoverished rurals, Maoists have stolen the thunder from the State and have proactively set forth their own agenda. That of violent uprising of the proletariat and a consequent power change.

The Mao Zedong doctrine which inspired Kanu Sanyal and Charu Mazumdar in the spring of 1967 to let loose the Naxal Bari uprising, is still running in the life blood of modern day Maoist Don Quixotes. The Spring Thunder (as the Naxal Bari movement was called by the Chinese) has taken deep roots in the rural India.

It is no surprise that the Red Corridor is the area which has the largest concentration of mines in India. A takeover of such region has economic basis. It provides for illegal mining from which the movement prospers.

The Indian Establishment is still in two minds as to how tackle the red menace. It dithers on the prospects of opening aerial attack on the cadres. It works piecemeal on policing strategy.

Yet it wants to root out the Red Taliban before going all out for development work.
Many other factors have given a fillip to the movement. A porous interstate border, lack of coordinated interstate police effort, lack of proper intelligence sharing and lackadaisical development work in affected areas.

However, apart from twin actions of firm policing and focused development , the government should try to engage the Red Brigade in a dialogue. For it is only by drawing the militia and the disgruntled rurals into the national mainstream can the problem be permanently solved.

Exit The Dragon

The Left in West Bengal had seen it coming. Didi’s winning hook to the Left wasn’t a surprise to the party. Marxists’ bhadarlok had had this sinking feeling all along. Especially since the Nandigram/Singur days.

The West Bengal Assembly poll results can only be termed as a rout. Trinamool Congress won hands down. Bagging 226 out of 294 seats, it has marginalized the Front as a shameful entity.

How did the Didi manage the coup?
It is almost a sphinx –like rise for this women in white who was all but decimated in the 2004 Lok Sabha poll, surviving as the only MP of Trinamool from the state.

In the final reckoning it seems that the Left’s rout was it’s own doing. The party had become complacent. It had taken people for granted. Its cadre had turned mafiaso, its leaders inward- looking and the Front had got stuck in a time warp.

But it wasn’t the case always. The rot had slowly set in . The Front came to power in the state in 1977. Riding the wave of Congress misrule and Emergency excesses, it gave people new hope.

And it did wrought positive changes in the socio-political mileu. Land reforms were actualized, panchayati raj institutions were democratized, agriculture got a fillip and communal harmony was maintained.

But as years passed by the Front Rule became Stalinesque. Its effect showed on the state.
Industrialization stagnated and jobs for the bhadralok became scarce. Disenchantment of the masses grew.
The middle class Bengali who saw the Front more as a Bengali cultural outgrowth than as a political party started looking for change.

Then Nandigram and Singur happened. It was the single most major blunder of the Marxist rule for which now the party thinktank and bosses are ruing.

However, it was a godsend for Didi. In 2007 she jumped on the Nandigram bandwagon and managed to appropriate it. The shrewd fighter that Mamta Banerjee is, in no time she won the sympathy of peasantry and the intelligensia.

However, the winds of paribortan was started by the wily lady way back in 2007 when she dumped the BJP and embraced the Jamait and the SUCI. Poll results showed that the rural elecorate had started dumping the Left in favour of the Trinamool and its allies.

Mamta read the signs and kept on consolidating her electoral gains. She wooed the Muslims and whitled down the loyal vote bank of the Front. Afterall Muslims form 26% of the state electorate which no party can ill afford to overlook.

Nandigram onwards the Left Front fought Mamta with its back to the wall. But so set was its ideological groovings that the party manadrins failed to take corrective steps. Steps which might have compelled them to review their policies. And they became a sitting duck for Mamta.

Also the anti-corruption wave of the nation made Didi look like an austere saint in white. Someone who can resist the lure of the lucre and wrought honest changes in the socio-economic and political fabric of the state.

Now that the Bengali bhadralok and the peasantry have got what they wanted , namely paribortan, its time to test Didi’s agenda which she has held as a salve for the wounds of West Bengal. Wounds of Maa, Maati aur Manush.

The Unlucky Aadesh Srivastava

Life has always been tough for music director Aadesh Srivastava. Today his elder brother Chitresh died in a freak road accident in the United States. He was the manager of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, and was on a performance tour of US. His death seems to have shattered Aadesh, who himself had survived a bout of cancer some time back.
This boy from Jabalpur has always had an uncanny ear for beats. In his earlier days he used to play drums in shows. When he landed in Mumbai he played drums for such stalwarts like O P Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishen and Salil Chowdhary. He assisted Laxmikant Pyarelal for almost a decade till he came of his own with a fairly good break in KANYADAN (1993). The immensely popular song Kya Ada Kya Jalwae Tere Paro (Shastra- 1996) set him on a path of recognition.
Aadesh had a knack of creating high-tempo upbeat songs, which lent easily to eye-catching dance choreography and was perhaps one factor behind the popularity of his songs. 90s were the decade ofspicy lyrics and hip-jerking dance numbers. Aadesh was past master in such trade. But somehow, despite giving chartbusters at regular intervals, he wasn’t signed up by many filmmakers.Aadesh was constrained to relegate himself to background scores, if only to keep his kitchen going. His ouvre has as many music directions to his credit as background music scores.
I remember meeting him for an interview in Sunny Sound, Juhu. It was 2000, and he had just completed the background score of his film REFUGEE. He was minus his afro hairstyle and was in the studio giving background score to yet another film.
We talked about a while. He had a sore point about one music director obliquely referring to him as the man who presents his tune to producers by drumming them on the table. He on his part took a jab at one Pakistani singer who had come and conqured Bollywood !!
Srivastava had a good chemistry with Bacchan. In fact he gave music to quite a few of his films. Major Saab, Lal Badshah, Babul, Bhagban etc. During his cancer treatment Bacchan gave him a hospital visit. And also after his brother’s death.
During the Navratri period Aadesh was and is a regular feature in Mumbai. He has his own 9 days’of dandiya dhamaal which is quite popular. So is his stage shows. It goes well to show that he still has niche in people’s hearts. In live shows they lap him up. But it is through Bollywood films that Aadesh wants to reach out to his audience. And that’s where industry has been given a cold shoulder. Unlucky Aadesh.

Never Say Die : Abhishek Bachchan
He has been there for the last 11 years. Tinsel town’s Aby Baby has had his share of misfortune and stardom. He has given a lot of duds and a few hits in between. Today as Dum Maro Dum rakes in mollah at the BO he basks in relief. And relief he needs because his career graph is heart-wrenching. Debuting in 2000 with Refugee he went on to give 17 flops , and somewhere in between got recognized as an actor in Mani Ratnam’s Yuva (2004). He received his first Filmfare award as the Best Supporting Actor for the film. The same year he featured in another commercial hit, Dhoom.
In 2005 Bunty and Bubbly and Sarkar rang the cash register and in 2007 Guru did him proud. 2008 was the year of Dostana and 2009 that of Paa.
Abhishek’s career in some ways bears some resemblance with his paa Amitabh. Senior Bacchan too had a string of 11 flops in the beginning of his career, and then he bounced back and how.
Today we are still waiting for the Junior to `bounce back.` Like all young actors Junior has also made his share of mistakes. Chosen flop scripts to act in …but he had little choice….for he had to keep his acting shop open and his image fresh in the fickle mind of public. But when once in a while a good film came his way he shown in it. It is more of his charisma that has been pulling him through, and here he shares karma with his wifey Aish, who also despite a sullen BO record is thought of as a queen of marquee. Being in the shadows of a towering Paa has its shortcomings as much is expected of the lineage. Now with the cop act clicking in Dum Maro Dum it is being whsipered that it can be a Zanjeer for Abhishek. A beginning to a glorious career. Well, we will wait and watch

Osama is Dead
In an action that was as dramatic as the 26/11 attack, United States commandoes swooped in on an isolated building in Abbotabad, Pakistan, and killed the dreaded Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden in the early hours of 2nd of May. The safe house was just 800 yards from the Kakul Military Training school where army and ISI operatives are trained. Abbotabad is situated in North-West Paksitan near the Pak-occupied Kashmir where reportedly Pakistani and misguided Indian youths are drilled in guerilla warfare to wreck havoc in India. It is near this place that Osama had been living with his youngest wife.Apprently the covert action was sanctioned by Obama on 2nd of April this year. Many questions now rise after the killing of Laden.
The first hinges on the Indian strategy post killing. That Laden was found encosed in a safe house near a much guarded military cantonment points to the fact that Islamabad was well aware of his whereabouts and had ensured his safe existence. This is a black and white proof
Of Pakistani complicity in nurturing terrorism. P Chidambaram’s statement that Pak is a terrorist state is to be seen in this context. Now, India can gain well by stepping up its diplomatic manoeuveres to highlight it’s case.
Secondly, US authorities have well warned that there could be a backlash against the Americans worldwide by Al Qaeda. That the killing has made him a martyr.
Thirdly, post Laden, Al Qaeda won’t crumble from within due to lack of leadership. Reports say that due to ill health Laden had withdrawn from the nitty gritty of functioning In fact, the organization had been functioning from control from a layer of well established commanders.. However, his death will be the loss of a charismatic leader which youths and cadres looked up to. Laden also had good links with moneybags of the Arab nations who funded the cause.
Furthermore, the successful military action of the US has but strengthened the hands of Obama. It will be a brownie point in his presidential fight.
Death of Osama is not a badge to be worned by the US and other nations, but calls for a concerted action to destroy terrorism from the root.

Sanjeev Bhatt : In The Line of Fire
It’s never too late for anything. Gujarat cadre IPS officer sure knows this. Which is why he chose to open his mouth 12 years after the 2002 Godhra carnage and implicated Chief Minister Narendra Modi by his Supreme Court affidavit. Bhatt has charged Modi of biased behavior against the Muslims during the Godhra riots. His statements have been recorded by the Justice Nanavati-Akshay Mehta committee investigating the Godhra carnage and the post-Godhra riots.
Predictably, the statement of Bhatt has put him in direct line of fire of the state admisitration. The police administration has withdrawn six armed bodyguards and government vehicle of Bhatt. His plea for Y category security has been appraised by IB and state police and given a veto. All this while the state government has gone in the denial mode about the presence of Bhatt in the security meeting of Modi, where the `go easy on Hindus’ advice was allegedly tendered by the Chief Minister.
Bhatt must have apprehended the vindictive backlash. It was the proverbial case of enimity with crocodile while living in his waters. Modi’s ruthless control over the jugular of the state administration is known to all. He is the master of all he surveys, and has ruled with an iron hand during violent and turbulent times. The state which is a hotbed of Hindutva forces has seen many a painful communal upheavels. Though it is a moot point how much biased Modi is, still one thing is certain, virulent Hindu sentiments run large in the state and Modi and his party can ill-afford to ignore it. So it won’t be surprising if a subterranean undercurrent of right wing machinations doesn’t seek to influence the administration. However, such conclusions doesn’t give unexamined credence to the statement and stand of Bhatt and his like.
Sanjeev Bhatt’s belated interest in the fair play of Godhra investigation and trial also gets under a scanner. The career of the 1987 batch IPS officer is not entirely without blemish. He has been implicated in a drug planting episode, and a custodial torture case is still on against him. So is this the reason that Bhatt has decided to go on the offensive ?? To save his skin from a negative judgement by floating his case of state victimization??
All said, Sanjeev Bhatt’s case has the potential of becoming an opportunity for political one-upmanship between the Congress and the BJP, and also a rallying point for civil society crusaders. Check out on Chidambaram versus Gadkari parrying on the issue and the muscle-flexing by civil society advocates of the like of Mahesh Bhatt and Sharmila Tagore et al.

JPC : A mockery of Democracy
The recent game play and shallow behavior by the Joint Parliamenry Committee members over the draft of 2g scam has brought Indian Democracy to shame. Congress and its allies have created a ruckus over the indictment of former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G scam , and on the role of Prime Minister’s office on going easy on the issue, and on role of the then finance minister p chidambaram.Under the Chairmanship of committee chief Murli Manohar Joshi the conlusions have still more stirred the already ruffled hornest’s nest. Congress and DMK has taken strong objection to the conclusions and have joined hand with some other committee members in condemning Joshi for being hell-bent-on-vendetta against the PM and congress. JPC’s draft report has made DMK and Congress strange bedfellows. While on the political turf CBI inquiry’s ever-increasing ambit has made DMK an estranged partner of the coalition, in the JPC boardroom the cornered Dravida party has joined hands with an equally targeted congress.
Strange party games were played in the committee to stall the report. Members from the bahujan samaj party and samajwadi party were`` won `’ over by congress-dmk combine to neutralize the bjp clout in the 21 member committee. The opposing members strength tallied to 11.Saifuddin Soz was chosen the head of the committee by the opposing members. However, joshi was seen as unrelenting. He has declined a vote on the matter and is expected to hand over the report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meera Kumar. Then, according to rules, it will be speaker’s onus to decide on the fate of the report.
The deadlock and the resulting acrimony between the congress and the bjp is expected to spill outside the committee and may see a more defiant bjp manhandling the upa 2 government. With 2g already a ready ammunition for the bjp, the recent developments can add to the viciousness of the attack on the government.
With corruption a redhot issue, the government can ill-afford such stalling tactics to sabotage a report which in all counts has opened a stinking cupboard in the governmet’s house.

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