What's Left To Blame

With the bifurcation of Bihar in November 2000, there was a general feeling that the State would witness a decline in the violence perpetrated by various left-wing extremist groups - called Naxalites. A number of the affected districts in south Bihar went over to the newly created State of Jharkhand, and it was expected that the remaining areas in Bihar would be easier to control. The last two years, however, have not only witnessed a consolidation of extremists in their strongholds, but a further expansion of their activities into new areas. Moreover, the growing understanding between hitherto warring Naxalite groups and their deepening linkages with Maoist insurgents in Nepal have created additional threats in this eastern State of India.

The Naxalite movement, which originated in the small town of Naxalbari in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, had a direct impact on Bihar, and the Bihar State Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (BSCCCR) was formed on December 10, 1968. The militant Communist Party of India, Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) came into being in 1969. The Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), which came into existence in 1967 in West Bengal, surfaced for the first time in Bihar in 1972. The Majdoor Kishan Sangharsha Samiti (MKSS), later known as the CPI-ML (Party Unity) was formed in 1982. In a major effort at the consolidation of left-wing activity, the CPI-ML (Party Unity) merged with the People's War Group (PWG) of Andhra Pradesh in 1998, to constitute the CPI-ML (People's War).

At present, the major left-wing extremist groups active in Bihar include the MCC; the CPI-ML (People's War) - commonly known as the People's War Group (PWG); the CPI-ML (Liberation), which continues to maintain underground squads even though it claims to have relinquished the path of violence and has been participating in parliamentary politics since 1992; the Shantipal group; and the CPI-ML (New Democracy). Of these, the MCC and the PWG are the primary surviving threats in the State.

Bihar presently stands third, after Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, in terms of the scale of Left-wing activities. In the first nine months of year 2002, a total of 104 persons, including 19 extremists, six police personnel and 79 civilians had been killed in the extremist violence. This followed 121 killings in the year 2001, which included 14 extremists, 24 police personnel and 83 civilians.

Left-wing extremists are active in twenty-eight out of Bihar's 40 districts, and the worst affected Patna, Gaya, Aurangabad, Arwal Bhabhua, Rohtas and Jehanabad in South western parts of the State. Of late, however, there has been a spurt in extremism in parts of North Bihar including the Motihari, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts. The PWG has also extended its areas of influence in Shaharsha, Begusarai and Vaisali, and the MCC is trying to use Kaimur Hills, situated on Bihar's borders with Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP), to expand its activities in the Kaimur region and UP. The formation of the Utpirit Mukti Vahini (Force for the Liberation of the Oppressed) in West Champaran district has also caused considerable alarm in the establishment.

The growing nexus of the Naxalites in Bihar with Maoist insurgents in Nepal is another cause for rising concern. Bihar has eight districts with 54 police stations situated along the 753 kilometre-long open border with Nepal. As a result of the crackdown on Maoists in the Himalayan Kingdom, the Bihar-Nepal border has become increasingly vulnerable to use by the Nepali Maoists. An estimated 20 Maoist insurgents have been arrested from different parts in North Bihar since January 2001. In recent incidents, six Maoist insurgents were arrested in Sitamarhi on July 20, 2002; another three were arrested in Motihari district on July 19, 2002; and on November 27, 2001, the West Champaran district police arrested a Naxalite with explosives meant for the Maoists in Nepal.

MCC and the PWG linkages with the Nepali Maoists are not a recent development. In February 1996, the MCC Central Committee published a paper welcoming the Maoist movement in Nepal, and in October that year, condemned the 'repression' of the Maoists by the Nepalese government. All three groups are part of the joint 'Indo-Nepal Border Regional Committee,' and unconfirmed reports indicate that the MCC has been training Nepali Maoist cadres in Aurangabad district. Training camps are also said to exist in the West Champaran district of North Bihar.

The growing linkage between the MCC, the PWG and the Nepali Maoists are part of their larger strategy to create a 'Compact Revolutionary Zone' stretching across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Bihar, to Nepal. With Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) becoming increasingly active along the Bihar-Nepal border and the growing use of Nepalese territory by the ISI for anti-India activities, there are apprehensions that the ISI may also incorporate Left-wing extremist groups in its strategy to destabilize India.

The Bihar Government, on its part, has initiated a number of steps to contain Left-wing extremism, including the creation of a Special Task Force (STF) and Special Operations Groups (SOGs) to neutralize the armed groups, as well as a comprehensive surrender and rehabilitation package. These measures, however, have failed to check the expansion of Naxalite activities.

The collapse of the institutions of civil governance, the general breakdown of the rule of law, the sharp polarization of state institutions on the basis of caste, the criminalisation of politics, and the existence of a collusive arrangement between the political establishment, various state institutions and extremist elements, create a context that sustains the violence of these groups. There is little evidence, under the present circumstances, that the present and projected initiatives by the administration will succeed in neutralising the growing menace of extremism in one of India's most backward States.