No alternative to the Salwa Judum
forces’ transit plans.
Overground sympathisers accomplished a great victory when they got the courts to intervene to disband the highly effective Salwa Judum movement backed by the state government. That movement was aimed at securing villages from Maoist terror and enabling villagers to cultivate their fields under police protection.
In the long run, there is no effective alternative to Salwa Judum, whatever new name may be given to it. Clubbing villages together within secure perimeters and providing gainful employment to tribal youth has to be the government’s mission. Simultaneously, political parties need to come together, as they did for Salwa Judum to help build tribal leadership to counter the evil influence of Maoism, which has been destructive in the extreme.
With the terrorists targeting schools it is obvious they want to keep the tribals in the bondage of illiteracy and abject poverty so they can provide cannon fodder to the insurrectionists. It is common knowledge that tribal women are routine abducted and forced into sexual slavery to the Maoist leaders. This deserves wider publicity.
The government also needs to chart out a lucrative surrender policy which should include the relocation of surrendered tribals outside Bastar. The police must reorient its policies and be accepted as a friendly rather than confrontationist force. The police must systematically separate the chaff from the grain. Hardcore Maoists must be dealt with using an iron hand , while weaning away tribals from their influence. The problem is particularly acute in a place called Abujh Madh where contractors and government officers have hitherto exploited tribals, especially the women. The government has to give exemplary punishment to its staff if found to indulge in such practices.
Most important, tribals must be convinced that their future lies in the region’s development. But to convince them of the future, a sustained ideological battle must be waged to intellectually cripple their overground sympathisers particularly in certain dens of subversion and antiIndianism, such as JNU.