Security high on Nepalese border, govt suspects Maoists-Naxalite coordination

June 18: Let’s paint the world red. This is the message of armed communists (read Maoists or Naxalites) to sympathizers and also a challenge for the administration.

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After success in Nepal, many armed cadres intend to come over to this side and “assist” their brethren with arms of the Naxalites to achieve their goal. And this is what Indian administration intends to stop.

To check the “possible influx” of Nepali Maoists over to this side, India has increased security along its border with Nepal and Bhutan. Inspector-General of Police (North Bengal) R.J.S. Nawla reportedly confirmed that reinforcements of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), in charge of guarding the borders with Nepal and Bhutan, and the West Bengal police, which provides back-up to the force, had been deployed to increase “vigil along borders with Nepal and Bhutan.”

Intelligence officials privy to the sensitive information have confirmed that Naxalites, which witnessed its first uprising in May 25, 1967 after landlords killed a youth in West Bengal, are in constant touch with their ideologically compatible people in Nepal, because of similarities in strategies and goals.

Presently, 156 districts in 15 states face "threats" from Naxalite movements with the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh the worst affected. The movement has evolved into several armed and rebelling groups, well organized and fighting locally against the "state." Although the theory and practice of the Naxalite movement is debatable, their moral roots are not based in China or elsewhere. They claim decades of neglect and oppression by the administration forced them to take up arms.

During last decade, there has been an increase in the number of people empathizing with these armed cadres of communism thought within several states of India. Statistics of a few hundred to a few thousand cadres is an indicator.

Communist presence in Nepal government seem to have added to the apprehensions of the Indian administration as these armed cadres are known to have a close proximity with their counterparts in Indian administrated states afflicted with Naxalite movement. Their natural tendency to come to the “rescue” of Naxalite seems to be a certain probability.

The stern security policy adopted by New Delhi, along its border, is also due to intelligence inputs about the movement of Maoists into Bhutan, which would soon become a democracy. Intelligence sources revealed that 14 suspected Maoists were arrested in Bhutan recently.

Observers of Naxalite might be divided about the way country should respond to the “movement” but they have consensus over the collective approach. “The difference between a sensible and a nonsensical approach is in how a state responds as a state, not as a representative of the privileged,” expressed one of them.