The state has withered away

Maoist groups and the mindless orgy of violence unleashed by them are regarded as a national scourge. No less than the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself has gone on record to say that it constitutes the single-biggest threat to the country’s unity and security apparatus, even ahead of crossborder terrorism.

But does India’s political elite look too concerned? They should, if they are not. Sitting in the smug confines of the national capital or in one of the metros, the goings on in the country’s boondocks thousands of kilometres away, is no ones’ problem. Yet, if nearly 200 districts, in the heart of some of the most mineral-rich areas of the world, are under the grip of Left radicals, any country should worry. It is not as if policy planners are sitting idle tweedling their thumbs, but the complications of the situation are enormous.

While realms have been written on Maoists, their deadly strategies and human right excesses, this issue of Governance Watch examines a hitherto untapped area of work: the response of the government machinery to Left extremism.

The word administrative paralysis in this case would be an understatement. There is virtually no trace of the all powerful Indian state in vast tracts of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In fact, deep in the interiors of a Dantewada or Sambalpur district, almost wholly under Maoist control, a casual visitor to the region may be tempted to believe that he is back in 19th century India.

What were once fairly well administered states, like former Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, are mere caricatures of their not-too-distant past, their official delivery mechanisms in shambles because the threat of the gun in the last two decades or so, has been so overwhelming that the civil bureaucracy, including the armed police, have simply made themselves scarce.

The logic of politics is that if you vacate space, someone else will grab it. That is precisely what has happened. Buildings which once housed crucial low-level district functionaries, have been abandoned in favour of Left radicals, hospitals have become safe houses for those on the run and in the near absence of any law and order machinery, the extremists have without fear, marked out their territory.

A ground report from Sambalpur in Odisha demonstrates how fragile the administrative system has become. In one case after the other, remnants of the former administration who despite being in a minority have displayed courage to stay on and work in very trying circumstances, take their orders from Maoists. With no protection, what can be expected? Decisions deemed administrative, like collecting taxes, are now taken by Naxalites in their absence, underlining the state’s ultimate ignominy.

To focus substantially, we have the company of two experts who have seen the Naxalite movement from very close quarters, one a serving administrator and the other, a retired one. An officer posted in Andhra Pradesh in the worst days of Left militancy, shows us a way out. His empathy and involvement in the affairs of the common man won the day for the Indian state in a remote part of the country. For the other, working and understanding the Naxalites or Maoists has been a lifelong passion. It his column, he gives us a perspective that is fresh, as it is old. The rights of the tribals have been usurped and violated and what we now see by way of rural violence is the comeuppance. For a subject which is sure to dominate headlines in the days to come, hopefully this issue would help in providing some guidance.