Left Wing Extremism

Left Wing Extremism
 

News: Ten personnel of the Chhattisgarh Police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the civilian driver of their vehicle were reported killed in an IED attack by Maoists in Dantewada district.
 

What is Left Wing Extremism?
 LWE organizations are the groups that try to bring change through violent revolution. They are against democratic institutions and use violence to subvert the democratic processes at the ground level.
 These groups prevent the developmental processes in the least developed regions of the country & try to misguide the people by keeping them ignorant of current happenings.
 It is also referred to ask Naxalism as the uprising originated in a 1967 in Naxalbari (West Bengal) by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
 Naxals are a group of people who believe in the political theory derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong.
 

Causing for Left Wing Extremism in India:

Causes

o Tribal Discontent due to deprivation caused by strict forest laws

o Displacement of People due to evictions from lands used by Tribals

o Easily influenced by Maoists

o Absence of strong technical intelligence to tackle Naxalism

o Failure to provide essential services to people in such regions

o Central security agencies vs State police - Who can handle better?

Status of LWE situation in country now:
 According to the government, Maoist violence in the country has gone down by 77% since 2010.
 The number of resultant deaths (security forces + civilians) has come down by 90 % from the all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 98 in 2022 according to data from Ministry of Home affairs.
 The government has cut the number of districts declared to be Naxal-affected from over 200 in the early 2000s to just 90 now.
 The presence of Naxals is said to be minimal to zero in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Bihar, which were at one time their strongholds.
 

What are steps taken to contain LWE in India?
 A dedicated left-wing extremism division was established in 2006 under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
 Operation ‘SAMADHAN’ is the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)’s initiative to deal with the Naxal problem. The acronym SAMADHAN stands for Smart leadership, Aggressive strategy, Motivation and training, Actionable Intelligence, Dashboard Based KPIs (key performance indicators) and KRAs (key result areas), harnessing technology, action plan for each theater, and No access to financing.
 Apart from providing Security related expenditure (SRE), the central government has launched the Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS), which aims to strengthen local police and intelligence set ups; and Special Central Assistance for building infrastructure such as roads in LWE districts.
 Additionally, the Centre has maintained a massive presence of the CRPF in the affected states for almost two decades.
 The Centre has also unleashed the counter-terrorism National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate on CPI(Maoist) cadres, leaders, and sympathisers with the aim to choke theirfunding.
 The state governments have also launched several counter-insurgency measures. For example, Andhra Pradesh established an elite force called Greyhounds to successfully crack down on Naxal leaders.
 

Way Forward:
 Ensure all-round development of the Naxal-affected areas.
 Win the confidence of local community by employing more local people in the administrative process.
 Encourage state police forces to take the lead as observed in success of tackling LWE in states of Andhra Pradesh, WB, Odisha. All these states formed special units of their police forces with personnel and officer drawn from the state. 

 Build infrastructure, for example, building mobile towers in interior regions will facilitate local people connect with mainstream which will also help in gaining technical intelligence.