Delhi under pressure to send army to quell Maoists
By Krittivas Mukherjee
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under pressure to look at whether to send in the military to quell a growing Maoist insurgency in central India after an attack left 35 police and civilians dead on Monday.
A string of deadly attacks this year has undermined the government's claim to be winning the war on the Maoists. The rebels blew up a bus in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh. Last month 76 police were killed in a similar attack.
The decades-old movement is now present in a third of the country and while they have made few inroads into cities, they have spread into rural pockets of up to 28 states and now hurt potential business worth billions of dollars.
The Congress party, which heads a coalition federal government, has long opposed using the military against the militant left-wing movement because of the support the Maoists have in parts of India and for fear any severe crackdown will lead to a loss of votes from Congress grass-roots support base.
India has a record of inflicting a disproportionate number of civilian deaths when using the military to crush insurgencies.
But Singh is now facing a dilemma because if he continues the current policy of using the police he risks being seen as weak.
"A military offensive could lead to large-scale civilian deaths, and it will create a perception that the government is hitting its own people, which will have adverse political impact on the Congress," said D.H. Pai Panandikar, head of New Delhi-based private think tank RPG Foundation.
"And the Congress knows whatever the stand of the opposition parties -- some seem to support the use of military -- they will not be part of the action and will not be held accountable if there is large-scale casualty."
Some of the key government allies face local elections in the coming months, including in West Bengal, one of the affected states where the Trinamool Congress party is hoping for power and is unlikely to support any military action.-Reuters