Learning lessons from  Gadchiroli

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had once described the Maoist problem as one of the biggest security challenges facing the country. Wednesday’s attack by the banned organisation in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, in which 15 policemen and their civilian driver were killed, has only underlined that. The dastardly attack came within weeks of another blast in neighbouring Chhattisgarh in which a sitting MLA of the BJP lost his life. 

A two-pronged approach has to be adopted to meet the challenge posed by the Maoists. Firstly, the police and the security forces have to be better trained to avoid incidents like the one on Wednesday. Although it is very easy to point out mistakes after an incident has taken place, it is quite clear that the Gadchiroli casualties could have been minimised, if not entirely avoided.

The Maoists in the area first set off a fire among some parked vehicles in the middle of the night. This was intended as a bait to lure security personnel there and that is exactly what happened. The policemen, in a way, walked into a trap laid by the Maoists. For this, it is not the men on the ground who are to blame, rather it is the police leadership who failed them.

The Maoists are known to trigger an incident before laying an ambush, so senior police officers should have been more cautious before ordering their men to go and inspect the arson. The police should also have been alert about the fact that the Maoists are now under the new leadership of Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, a known expert on carrying out IED attacks.

The other front on which the government needs to pay urgent attention is providing basic amenities, including roads, healthcare, education, drinking water among others. In many of the Maoist-affected areas, there is utter lack of development. Land belonging to tribals have also been snatched from them, ironically in the name of development, leading to a sense of being denied justice. It’s time both the Central and state governments take corrective measures.