A Glimmer of Hope Regarding The Naxal Issue?

Apparently, the Congress chief has this to say about the Naxalite problem:

“Our country is facing an enormous challenge from the Naxalites. While we must address acts of terror decisively and forcefully, we have to address the root causes of Naxalism. The rise of Naxalism is a reflection of the need for our development initiatives to reach the grassroots, especially in our most backward tribal districts.”

She should be more careful when expressing such things which can be interpreted as offering support to the Naxalites : Supporting Maoists will invite 10 year jail. Of course this threat of jail-terms seems to be totally unconstitutional - our Constitution apparently even protects people that talk against the very idea of India itself.

Aside from that, the article notes that the PM gets the problem and also that Industry gets it:

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has however been a bit more specific in his appeal to industrialists that they should “partner” the Government in the latter's efforts to develop the interior regions of the country. Among other things, he is reported to have said that industry needed “to plough back cash into the areas from where it is hoping to make money”.

The CII president, Mr Hari Bhartia, reportedly said that Dr Singh wanted industry to invest in building trust in the Naxalite-hit districts, and that improvement of the “condition of the people in these areas has to be a priority for the state and industry”.

Importantly, the CII chief said that industry was “not immediately looking at doing business there... we want to go in and build trust”. This is a noble intention stated unequivocally, and Mr Bhartia should be complimented for the exercise.

Positive news definitely.

Land Grab In Tribal Areas

Plain and simple. And the tribals are supposed to grin and bear it? From Business Line:

..according to a knowledgeable scholar, Dr Walter Fernandes,between 1947 and 2004, nearly six crore persons were forcibly displaced due to acquisition of land for development purposes, and of them 40 per cent constituted Scheduled Tribes.

Out of a total population of generic tribals of eight crore, 2.4 crore people were involuntarily thrown out of their land, home and occupation. This figure constitutes 30 per cent of the total tribal population.

Official figures admit that only 28 per cent of the displaced tribal population has been rehabilitated. Assuming that even this low figure is not an exaggeration, what happened to the remaining 72 per cent of the displaced tribals numbering 1.44 crore?

When the Ministers and MPs in illegal occupation of vast official mansions in Delhi, owing crores of rupees to ‘‘We, the People'' in rent, electricity and water charges, and having their own extra homes elsewhere, are sought to be evicted, do not they raise Cain and cling to their illegal possessions, defying Parliament and the people? Do not the fat cats of the corporate domain let out a howl whenever the exemptions they have grown accustomed to are touched? You want the poor, the deprived and the downtrodden, subsisting without food or water, to feel ecstatic when you trample them under foot?

The law-and-order maestros are horrified at the violence and savagery from the side of Maoists and want to exterminate them at all costs and by all means. True, violence is abominable and deserves to be condemned.

But, then, people are forced to take to violence because only then the powerful governing class deigns to invite them for talks! People have come to know by experience that the government functionaries are stone deaf and the only way to jolt them is by exploding a bomb or setting fire to public property, for, only then, everyone from the Prime Minister down rushes out to listen to them.