NAXALITE REBELS NEED to be tackled with mainstream political activity, not just development projects and repression by security forces. This new approach for trying to end, or at least contain, India’s most serious internal security problem is being pushed by Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development. It has also recently been tacitly accepted by the state government of Orissa where Naxalite candidates won elections in 30 panchayats (village-level councils) a few weeks ago. Jairam Ramesh is the first central government minister to pick on party political activity as a primary way of providing a peaceful alternative to the violent activities of Naxalite, Maoist rebels who are active in nearly a one-third of India’s 600 administrative districts and whose committed leaders ultimately want to overthrow democracy. He first did so in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the end of December, 2011, but that was shuffled off to the Planning Commission, which has been loosely in charge of the government’s nonsecurity Naxalite policies for several years now. The Ministry of Home Affairs is in charge of security operations, along with individual states, and that has been stepped up since Palaniappan Chidambaram became Home Minister at the end of 2008. He started tough action that led to a noisy debate about whether security or development should be the primary way of tackling he problem. The debate unnecessarily polarised public opinion and slowed down progress on both fronts, though there was a decrease in violence last year. The number of those killed by Naxalites has however remained high— nearly 450 civilians and over 140 members of security forces according ministry statistics. There are constant reports of Naxalite attacks. A few weeks ago, about 150 rebels raided a stone mine in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh in eastern India looking for explosives. Failing to find any, they set fire to eight stone crushing machines. Others torched seven construction vehicles nearby, and a defaulter was to have been buried alive for not repaying a loan provided by a Naxalite organisation. The Planning Commission was given charge of development policies a few years ago but that is not enough. In 2008, it produced a massive 90-page report— Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas—which led to some initiatives. It does not however have the political or administrative muscle needed to implement change. Jairam Ramesh, whose high-profile initiatives transformed the Environment Ministry (at least temporarily), when he was in charge there for two years till last July 2011, is now using his current job to try to fill the vacuum. The government has not taken up his call for political activity since his letter to the Prime Minister, but he proposed it again at the recent launching of a book on Naxalites— More Than Maoism—and he then chatted to me about his ideas. “Lack of political mobilisation is the biggest weakness in these areas—you need mainstream political party activity,” he says. Last October he presented a comprehensive paper on “The Maoist issue” in Delhi where he proposed a “two track approach—one that deals with the leadership of the Naxalites, who wish to overthrow the Indian state, and the other which focuses on the concerns of the people they pretend or claim to serve”. He did not mention political activity because, he says, he had not then realised how important it is for party cadres to attract young people who would otherwise turn to Naxalites leaders. He has now visited 24 of the 78 administrative districts that are most seriously affected by Naxalite occupations and violence, and says he was struck by the lack of mainstream politics in areas that had become “security fortresses” without any presence of government machinery or authority. A “three-pronged approach through politics, people and police” was now needed. “Democracy by itself won’t solve the problem,” he says. “People need to have confidence in political parties and instruments of state such as the judiciary”. That may seem an odd remark at a time when public opinion about politicians and the judiciary is desperately low because of widespread corruption and the government’s failure to govern effectively. But Jairam Ramesh points to success in West Bengal where the Trinamool Congress Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has been taking party politics and development into Naxalite areas. He picks out for special mention a popular young Trinamool MP, Subhendu Adhikary, who was elected last year for a constituency that includes Lalgarh, a town occupied by Naxalites in 2009. Adhikary has been holding well-attended public rallies, despite the risk of bomb attacks. There was concern in Odisha when Naxalites won the panchayat elections—several without any opposition because rivals had been warned not to stand. This came not long after four Border Security Force officers had been killed, and police injured in other attacks. The Home Ministry is believed to have advised Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal government to cancel the elections. There was concern that local development funds, which have leaked badly for years, would be diverted to buy arms and explosives and would also be given to organisations in the Naxalites’ alternative form of government (such as the one involved in the loan defaulter’s death). However, Jairam Ramesh sees the panchayat elections as “a good first step” into the system, which they surely are. “This is an opportunity for political dialogue,” he says. He acknowledges the risk of funds being diverted to the Naxalites and says that special safeguards will be needed —he avoids saying that panchayat funds probably leak to them already, or to other illicit recipients. Sceptics will say that Jairam Ramesh is playing to the gallery and that talks have been tried before with little success, but state and central governments usually come round (eventually) to talking to rebel groups and Jairam Ramesh’s proposal is broader based than just talks. No one is suggesting that political rallies and panchayat elections will end a rebellion that has raged to varying degrees for 60 years in different parts of central and eastern India. These ideas and policies could however give politicians and official organisations a chance to offer an alternative to people who have only come under Naxalite influence because of neglect and maltreatment by mainstream society.