'I Do Not Fear The Naxalites'

The home minister responds to the debate on the Dantewada incident in Lok Sabha

Mr. Chairman, I am grateful to the hon. Members who have appreciated the gravity of incident that took place last week. Therefore, they have participated in this debate with a great sense of responsibility. I have listened to most of the speakers carefully since the debate was also there in the other House, I had to be away for some time but I picked up the notes.
 
Sir, this incident was a great tragedy. My first instinctive reaction was that something horribly went wrong. Preliminary inquiries tend to confirm that first impression. However, it may not be proper for me to share any conclusions based on the preliminary inquiry. We have instituted a full-fledged inquiry by a very senior retired IPS officer with a distinguished record; he has already undertaken the inquiry; he has been requested to submit his report in two weeks. I am confident that the report will come to us by the 24th or 25th of this month and I promise to come back to this House and share the conclusions that we draw from that report.

I have prepared a statement which I read in the other House; I would not read the whole statement here, but I think, it is worthwhile to share some details. In accordance with our policy which I will elaborate in a moment, at the request of the Government of Chattisgarh, 141 companies of Central Paramilitary Forces have been deployed in that State for anti-naxal operations over a period of time. The 62nd Battalion was deployed in March this year, to replace the 55th Battalion. Earlier, the 62nd Battalion had been deployed in Bihar, and had gained experience in anti-naxal operations.

The decision to undertake what is called an ‘area-domination exercise’ was taken jointly by the IG of Chattisgarh, Mr. Longkumar, the DIG of that area, Mr. S. R. P. Kalluri, and the DIG of the CRPF, Mr. Nalin Parbath. It was a joint decision. The actual deployment was left to the SP of the District, Mr. Amresh Mishra and the Commandant of the 62nd Battalion.

According to the plan, they were to undertake this exercise over a period of three days, including two night halts, between April 4th and April 6th. It is reported that they undertook the exercise. Unfortunately the Deputy Commandant is dead; the Assistant Commandant is also dead; both accompanied the force; the Head Constable of the civil police who also accompanied the force is dead. We have seven surviving jawans; they have recovered; I sincerely hope and pray that they will survive. It is only on a thorough inquiry, de-briefing the seven surviving jawans and conducting investigations in that area, including forensic investigations, that we can establish what actually happened.

So, my sincere submission is that let us await the report of the Inquiry Committee; once the report is available, together with the post-mortem report, the de-briefing and the forensic investigation, we will draw the conclusions and we will draw the lessons that are to be learnt from this great tragedy.

Sir, it appears that they came under fire at 0550 hours on the morning of the 6th. It is sad that some media said that they were sleeping; they were not sleeping. It was unfortunately a place where they did not have the advantage of either height or cover. Most of them died as a result of the bullet injuries. Some died because of crude bombs and grenades. The initial reports that appeared in the media are not entirely accurate. There were no landmines; there were no pressure bombs. Yet, many of them fought bravely and on the admission of the naxals – they put out a statement – eight of the naxal cadres were also killed.
 
So it is not correct to say that these men did not fight back. It appears some mistakes were committed. They were caught by surprise. They fought back and they lost 74 plus one plus one. They were able to retaliate and kill eight people. That is why, I said that this is a grave tragedy and we deeply mourn the loss of lives. Let us not pass any judgement now until the report comes.
 
Anti-naxal operations are conducted in accordance with the policy that has evolved over time. Some comments have been made about the Congress Party. As far as Congress Party is concerned, our policy is very clear. In January, 2006, the AICC passed a resolution and I read:

“The Indian National Congress views with concern the growing incidents of naxalite associated violence in parts of India. The Party urges the UPA Government to give this matter highest priority and believes that this has to be addressed as a serious law and order issue but with underlying socio-economic causes as well. Clarity and firmness in handling the threat of violence does not foreclose the possibility of a dialogue in appropriate situations.”

Our policy is clear. It is a grave law and order problem. One has to be mindful of the underlying socio-economic causes but the door for dialogue is also always open. I think this policy is quite clear and I do not think anyone in any section of this House can disagree with this policy. I am sure each one of the parties represented here has a policy which reflects these basic principles.

We have held a series of Chief Ministers’ meetings. The first was on the 6th of January, 2009, within 36 days after I took over as the Home Minister. On the following day, we had a special meeting of the Chief Ministers of States that were affected by naxalism. At that meeting, I posed to the Chief Ministers 31 questions and requested them to give me their views on each one of the 31 questions. I would not read all of them but just a sample:

“What is the policy of the State Government? Do you want a reactive policy or will it be a pro-active policy? How sound are the normal governmental institutions in the affected areas? Have you made an assessment about the amount of funds required for development? Do you subscribe to the theory that security forces should clear and hold the territory? Should development works be carried out only in areas that have been cleared of naxals? How does the State Government propose to deal with the sections of the civil society that seem sympathetic to naxals?”

A series of questions were posed and each Chief Minister gave his views. At the end, we agreed on a set of measures that we will take in order to fight the menace. The most important agreement was that the development and police action should go hand-in-hand. For this, the development effort should be appropriately dovetailed with the security action.

There was another meeting of Chief Ministers on the 17th of August, 2009 followed by a meeting of naxal-affected States. In the meanwhile, we had prepared an action plan. I shared the action plan with the Chief Ministers and the minutes of the meeting says and I read just one short paragraph:

“The Governor of Jharkhand (Jharkhand was under President’s Rule), Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Home Minister, Maharashtra, who represented the Chief Minister, and officers of West Bengal who represented the State Government, present broadly agreed to the proposed action plan.”

I summarised the discussion of the meeting and I then said that I will individually meet the Chief Ministers of each State where operations will be carried out, explain the action plan and obtain consensus. After this I travelled to the States and held meetings with the Chief Ministers and senior officers. We also had meetings with groups of Chief Ministers – Maharashtra on 6th of March, 2009; Andhra Pradesh on 6th of March, 2009, West Bengal on 3rd of April 2010, Orissa on 20th March and 26th of March, 2009, Chattisgarh on 19th January, 2009, 25th September, 2009, Jharkhand on 21st January, 25th September, 21st October, 2009 and on 28th January and 24th February, 2010. We called the Chief Minister of Maharastra to Raipur on the 22nd of January, 2010 and at Kolkata we called the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar on the 9th of February, 2010. I cannot recall another period of 15 months where the Home Minister of the country travelled to so many States, to so many Capitals on so many days meeting with Chief Ministers on a single issue of Naxals. Yes, other issues were discussed but the main subject was how to control the menace of naxals. The Action Plan was presented to them. We secured their consent and it was agreed that intra State operations, operations within the State, will be conducted under the direction of the DGP and the Chief Minister; and the inter-State operations, in the border, Jharkhand—Bengal; Jharkhand—Orissa; Orissa – Bengal; Orissa – Chattisgarh; Orissa – Andhra Pradesh; Chattisgarh – Maharashtra, will be conducted under the command of the Special DG of the CRPF because that requires co-ordination between the police force of one State and another State.

[On being asked by Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav: What about Bihar]
The Chief Minister of Bihar did not attend the meeting called in Kolkata. But he did attend the meeting held in Delhi. After the meeting in Kolkata I wrote to the Chief Minister of Bihar saying `yes` perhaps he had some reason for not attending the meeting in Kolkata but I invite him to attend the meeting in Delhi and requested him to come to Delhi. He wrote back saying, he did not say anything about coming to Delhi, that he wanted more Force. I wrote back again saying that your officers gave me a number, you are giving me a number and I think it is best that we discuss it and as agreed I should explain the Action Plan to you. So, please come to Delhi. I have received no reply. In fact, I heard a Member of his Party say that violence cannot be met by violence. I never said that violence can be met by violence. But the officers asked for `x’ number of companies and the Chief Minister asked for three times the number of the companies and I wanted therefore to know what his plan was.

We have limited number of Forces. We do not have infinite Forces. All that has been said about the CRPF, let me say one thing, there is no other force to take on the Naxals. Every other police force in this country is a border guarding force. The BSF, ITBP, SSB, Assam Rifles are border guarding forces. The CISF is trained for industrial security and for commercial establishments. The only force that we have is the CRPF. It was raised as a Reserve Police Force. Please underline the word `Reserve’. It is nothing but a Reserve Police Force. For law and order, call the CRPF; for communal violence, call the CRPF; for election duty, call the CRPF; today in the State of Punjab for unbundling the State Electricity Board they want me to send the CRPF. For VIP protection, call the CRPF; for static protection, call the CRPF, for anti-naxal warfare, call the CRPF. In the last 13 to 14 months given the limitation on our training facilities, I thank the Armed Forces because they have trained 10 battalions of BSF, 10 battalions of CRPF and 5 battalions of ITBP.
 
About 25 battalions or 25,000 men are being trained by the Army in this period. We are using our training facilities. We are setting up 20 training schools. We are giving money to the States. Given our resources, these are trained forces and everyone of the three platoons that were inducted in this area, Jagdalpur, had pre-induction training. The battalion itself had earlier gained experience in Bihar. The DIG is an Andhra Pradesh cadre officer with vast experience in anti-naxal operations in Andhra Pradesh. Yet, despite all these, there has been a grave tragedy and I did not lose my nerve, I did not lose my will. I have no fear. I do not fear the naxalites. But if a horrible tragedy took place, I think, it is the moral responsibility of the Minister to tender his resignation. And therefore, I tendered my resignation.

The Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson have rejected my resignation and I believe have reposed confidence in me and I will continue to provide leadership to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Paramilitary Forces in fighting naxalism.

We must understand the nature of naxalites. We are a robust democracy. There will be shades of opinions. There are clearly differences between what Mr. Yashwant Sinha said and what Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav said. There are differences between what Mr. Sharad Yadav said and what Mr. Tataghata Sathpathy said. There are clear differences between what everyone said and what Mr. Mandal said. Yet, it is the duty of the Government to evolve a policy, to ask for a consensus, to seek a consensus, to build on a consensus and to carry on the business of the Government. That is what I tried to do in all my meetings with the Chief Ministers.

We must understand the nature of the naxal challenge. I am afraid we have still not understood the nature of the challenge and we fall prey to some romantic version of what has been painted as Left Wing Movement. When Parliament elections were called, the naxals called for boycott of elections. In fact, they put out a document explaining how they view elections and this is what they said.

“Bollywood, Tollywood, cricket stars, industrialists, multinational corporations, media foundations and Non-Governmental organizations carry out non-stop propaganda about the virtues of democracy, the sanctity of the vote, how not casting the vote was tantamount aiding criminals win and so on. There was no end to websites and blogs calling on people to exercise their franchise. To lend an air of credibility to their propaganda, they asked the voters to use their wisdom to choose between the good and the bad and to elect the virtuous as if there were virtuous people left in the parliamentary pigstys

We think that the trend of boycott will grow stronger as a revolutionary movement grows stronger. The organs of people’s revolutionary power come into being in vast tracts of the country. The armed strength of the people grows and the people’s liberation guerilla army makes impressive gains and wins decisive victories in some areas. Without the consolidation of the party, people’s army and revolutionary mass organizations, organs of people’s power and without gaining an upper hand over the enemy in a significant area (enemy is not my word, it is their word), one cannot imagine people coming out in huge numbers to boycott the polls. The emergence of an alternative to the Parliamentary institutions will bring about a qualitative change in the perception, preparedness and approach of the people towards Parliament and contesting political parties.”

Post-elections, they put up another document, a very definitive document of what they will do. They also described what they did in the run up to the elections. The Election Commission, under the guidance of the Home Ministry drew up an elaborate plan to conduct elections. This is what they say they did.

“During the massive deployment of the Central forces and concentration of the entire police force in the State and their desperate attempts to create an atmosphere of terror, they could not achieve their objective. The people led by the CPI (Maoist) and the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army resisted the onslaught of the Central Police Forces, carried out daring attacks on these mercenary forces and foiled their “Operation Area Domination.” No candidate or party representative dared to venture into these areas for electioneering. Only Maoist posters, banners and leaflets were seen in vast tracts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra. In the Maoist guerrilla attacks during the period starting from April 6th, when the election process started, when three C-60 commandos were wiped out in Maharashtra to the annihilation of BSF jawan near Kon village in Lategarh after the completion of polling on April 16th, a total of 43 Central and State forces were wiped out in Maoist counter offensive. By the time the last phase of polling was completed on 13th May, our PLGA carried out several more attacks on the enemy forces, annihilating a total of over seventy enemy troops. As on June 12th, when the present circular of our Politburo is being released, a total of 112 police personnel, most of them Central forces were wiped out in the heroic actions carried out by the PLGA guerrillas.”

Let us have no illusion about what they want. Their goal is the seizure of political power. Their method is army liberation struggle. Their instrument is People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, which, they say in this document, will soon be converted into a People’s Liberation Army. They call this “war”. They call us “enemies”. They call this hallowed hall a “pigsty”. Do we still have any illusions about the kind of adversary that we are facing?

This is not the first tragedy that has occurred. We have had several set backs in the past. In March 2007, fifty-five men of the Chhattisgarh Police were ambushed in the Rani Bodi camp; in June 2008, thirty-seven Greyhounds of the Andhra Pradesh Police were killed in an ambush while crossing Balimela dam; in February 2010, twenty-four West Bengal Police men were killed; in July 2009, twenty-four police men were killed in Chhattisgarh in an ambush in Rajnandgaon. State police forces have died in ambushes. Central police forces have died in ambushes. We are facing a determined enemy. Our jawans are putting up a brave fight. It is our duty to stand by our jawans. It is our duty not to say or do anything that would demoralise them.
 
As I said and I wrote, they fight, some of them die so that the rest of us can live in freedom, liberty and democracy.

We are not unmindful of the socio-economic causes. We have heard people say that there is no water; there is no development; there are no schools; there are no jobs; there is no employment. I do not disagree. But who can be blamed except ourselves? Can anyone in this House point a finger to anyone else and say: “You are responsible for this area not being developed over the last 30 years?” If there has been no development in Lalgarh – I am not entering into a debate but I am only reporting what people told me in Lalgarh – over the last 30 years, can anyone blame the Central Government for that? If there has been no development in Chhattisgarh, can anyone blame us? Chhattisgarh was formed in the year 2000. There was a Government in Madhya Pradesh for several years before that. There has been a Government in Chhattisgarh since. If there has been no development in Jharkhand, can anyone blame us? Jharkhand was part of Bihar for many years. There had been successive Governments. There has been a Government in Jharkhand. There is a series of Chief Ministers in Jharkhand. The Central Government has a responsibility but the State Governments have equal, if not greater, responsibility on development. Likewise, on controlling naxalism, the Central Government has a responsibility but the State Governments have equal, if not greater, responsibility to control the menace of naxalism. 

I have offered to every Chief Minister total support to what they will do, what plans they will draw not only to maintain law and order, to control the menace of naxalism but also to bring about development in that area.

We are releasing funds. We are releasing funds under the SRE Scheme. We are releasing funds under the Special Infrastructure Scheme for naxal-affected districts. We are releasing funds under the Scheme for Modernisation of the State Police Forces. Now, we can argue – I am glad some of you argued – that the funds are not adequate. I am sure, the UPA Chairperson, the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister would be mindful of what you say and will allocate funds, if necessary but funds allocated must be spent. But expenditure has not kept pace with the release of funds. We have released funds and the funds remain unspent.

It is not only that. We have a Special Plan for the development in these areas. There is a Task Force chaired by the Cabinet Secretary which concentrates on the 33 most-affected districts. We give additional allocation under the PMGSY, the National Highways and State Roads for implementing the Forest Rights Act, for the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana, for the National Rural Drinking Water Scheme for Total Sanitation, for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Indira Awas Yojana. But then, when I look at the funds that have been released and the funds that have been spent, I find that not all the funds that have been released are spent. So, my earnest appeal is that we must stand firm on these twin pillars. It is a grave law and order problem that threatens not only the internal security of the country but also it threatens the very foundations of our democratic Republic; it must, therefore, be squarely met. Fearlessly, we must meet the menace of naxalism. On the other hand, we must address the underlying socio-economic causes by taking, as Shri Malayam Singh Yadav has said, roads, electricity, drinking water and sanitation schemes to those areas. But do not think that the adversary will let you do that. The adversary targets your infrastructure. I can quote you from an interview given by Azad and Dalapathy. Why does he target the infrastructure? He says that schools cannot be built here because the schools will likely be occupied by the security forces; communication tower should not be built here because then, people will be able to communicate with their headquarters.
 
I have got a whole list of infrastructure that they have attacked in 2008 and 2009. Therefore, Sir, without taking too much time of the House, I respectfully submit that this tragedy that happened in Dantewada last week must only make us more determined, more resolute and more fearless. It must also make us, at the same time, more compassionate and more concerned about the poor so that development takes place.

[On Sharad Yadav's intervention about corruption and how much of the allocated funds reach those they are intended for] I am sure that both Sharad Yadavji and Mulayam Singh Yadavji mean well when they point out to corruption fainting into both security measures that we take as well as development measures that we take. I share their concerns. All I can say is, if this tragedy is not a wake up call, nothing will wake this country; nothing will wake Parliament of India. At least after this tragedy, whatever our failings, whatever our faults, whatever our collective failures, let us resolve that we should show greater determination and more fearlessness in dealing with the adversary, greater compassion and greater dedication in bringing development to the people. On these two pillars, I am confident that we will overcome and ultimately what will triumph is the idea of India. I am sure that liberty and freedom of democracy will triumph in this country.

[On L.K. Advani's intervention about compensation for those who died] Sir, we had already issued a Press Release. Perhaps it has not been noticed by hon. Members. But I will tell you what we have done. Each member will get including the ex gratia that State Governments pay at differential rates, if you keep that out, Rs. 35 lakh from the Central Government. State Governments give differential rates ranging from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 15 lakh. The Central Government, under various heads, will give each family Rs. 35 lakh. State Governments are adding between Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 15 lakh. So it can go up to Rs. 50 lakh. This is one thing.

Secondly, the Last Drawn Pay will be paid to the family until the date the martyrs would have retired.

Thirdly, one eligible member of the family, whom they will decide upon, will get a job. Once the next of kin is identified, a statement will be taken because it may be more than one next of kin in some cases. We will have to decide as to who will get it. There is a procedure to be followed. Advaniji knows it as well as I do. I have promised that we will try our very best to complete all these cases by the end of this month.