Show empathy, not apathy

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Maoist violence was the outcome of poverty in “certain tribal regions of the country”, and added that poverty and lack of development had alienated tribals from the mainstream. Golden words from the top boss. Very mature and responsible bytes. But aren’t these words coming in late, very late.
Home minister, P. Chidambaram, too, made an offer for talks with the Maoists after a request from former Lok Sabha Speaker, Rabi Ray, and other members of the civil society, working under the banner of Citizens’ Initiative for Peace. The forum had requested the government to stop the offensive against Naxalites in some states. Till then, our home minister had been talking about additional forces to rein in the Naxalites. The fact is that each time the Naxals have struck, the official response has been to tackle the “menace with an iron hand”.
The Naxalite groups intensified their strikes. They have been striking at regular intervals, the most recent one being the “trainjacking”. Our government responses have become staid and sometimes so confusing that it leads one to doubt that there is any sound political will to understand and analyse the situation. The strategy seems to be seeing the Naxalite movement as a “threat” to law and order. Why is it that the state machinery deliberately ignores the harsh reality of the marginalized tribals facing severe economic and social backwardness?
There have been social activists trying to sensitise the media and the government to “listen” to those displaced and marginalized. Then an Arundhati Roy spoke. Many columnists, too, joined the issue, advocating a sympathetic handling of the problem. In fact, the media has so far not been too sympathetic to the plight of tribals. It has been focusing on violence and casualties, laced with a message that this “terror” had to be crushed.
Now this new wave of media sympathy towards the marginalized sections of society seems to have dilated the vision of the government, prompting the Prime Minister to acknowledge that development was not really reaching tribals, who remain the poorest of the poor and asking for handling the Maoist violence “holistically”.
It remains to be seen whether the state can follow up the Prime Minister’s message with a concerted action plan to address the issue. The government could first invite the Naxalite groups for talks. They could then fix a time-frame to implement development programmes in areas, overlooked till now.
Of course, this sounds very simplistic, and the push-pull dynamics of Naxal strongholds may frustrate sincere efforts. But there are three factors that will certainly slow down or even thwart such ambitious benevolence. First is Corruption, that dangerous virus corroding our political system, blocking the vision of our leaders and paralyzing their will to serve the nation. The second is Nexus, a charming word in the political lexicon that promises to bring in billions to personal coffers. And, the third is Police brutality on villagers in the guise of targeting Naxal sympathizers.
If at least a handful of our political leaders recognize the reason behind the violence unleashed by the Naxalites, the battle is almost won. Taking it from there will be easier. Otherwise our Prime Minister’s observation and solutions with remain just interesting sound bytes.