Bibhu Prasad Routray & Shanthie Mariet D'Souza
ISAS Insight No. 213, 8 July 2013
Abstract
The
inability to craft an effective national policy to deal with the surge of left-wing
extremism (LWE) is a subject of intense policy debate and mounting public
concern in India .
A shortsighted counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy, an apathetic political class,
an unresponsive state machinery, bureaucratic inertia, problems of coordination
(between the centre and state governments)and the growing disconnect between a
prospering and an impoverished India ,
have been flagged as some of the factors that contribute to the lack of an
effective strategy and the near-unassailability of the extremists. At the heart
of such inadequacies, however, is the persistent conceptual ambiguity regarding
the nature of the movement and the threat it poses to the Indian state. Authorities
have been periodically compelled to revisit their strategies after each
successful extremist attack. And yet, a comprehensive and unified national
strategy providing a long-term solution to LWE remains a far-fetched goal. The 25 May 2013 extremist attack in the
state of Chhattisgarh provided yet another opportunity to rethink and reset the
COIN strategy. Whether the new strategy would end the ambiguity and explore
alternate mechanisms for conflict resolution, however, remains to be seen.
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