The Question of Justice

Writing on the issue of Naxalism is similar to writing on India’s failures; the failures of Indian government, the repeated failures of Indian intelligence and the failure to gauge the unrest among people. The government never took the responsibility of its ignorance, the intelligence never measured the seriousness of the problem, and the police did the rest to aggravate the problem. Even at this time when the Naxalite issue has taken the shape of a national security issue, they are busy in playing blame game. The government is dismissive and not ready to come out of its comfort zone.

Whenever the problem of Naxalism is debated, what comes first is the ‘issue of justice’. Without fail, the government has failed to do justice to tribal issues. But, isn’t it absurd to conflate tribals and Maoists. All tribals are not Maoists! And if we say so, it would be injustice to them.

I concur with the view that the state has failed in resolving the problems of tribals, instead has created many. Yes the government is just inept! But does that mean it has lost the right of maintaining law and order? I am saying this because the sympathizers of Maoists have continuously opposed any idea of tackling the problem by force. They insist that the state should open the doors of dialogue. I agree with this idea also. After all they are the citizens of India like us. But talk to whom and on what issue? Kishenji who is no more had once demanded that the government should discontinue with IPL. Is the state supposed to take their consensus on this issue?

There are all kinds of sympathies for Maoists and they are enjoying sympathizers in abundance, so much so that I suspect even the state has that number of sympathizers. But here I disagree with all the sympathizers of Maoists, not because I am against the cause they are fighting for but because they are perpetrating acts of violence and killing civilians indiscriminately. If the question of justice can be raised for Maoists, it must also be raised for the rights of civilians. And, of course, the lives of soldiers are also precious so when the issue of justice is debated, they are not to be forgotten as often they are.

Maoism as an ideology is nihilistic. It always stands against democracy, liberal values and personal rights. Moreover, it criticizes anything that suggests them to give up arms and come on the table for dialogues.  It has clearly been stated in their documents that mass organizations and mass struggle is just to serve their purpose and their ultimate purpose is to turn down the democratically elected government.

Democracy functions on managing without consensus. In a democracy, everyone has the right to disagree but nobody has the right to wage a war against the state even if it is against the backdrop of some legitimate issues. Maoists are fighting for the right cause but their means are wrong. They have continuously been embroiled in blowing up schools, government buildings and railway tracks. Not only this, they have been abducting government officials on regular intervals. They run a parallel government in some areas where their law prevails which just glorifies violence. And no socialistic ethic glorifies violence.

But, the misconducts of Maoists can’t justify the role of the government. The government is equally responsible for this anarchy. It is not supposed to play its dirty politics on the corpses of innocents what it has done from the very beginning.  It’s high time the government should follow the constitution and address the issue with vigor.  But will the government step out of its comfort zone? Will the government say sorry to its citizens once for the crimes it has committed? I know they won’t. This blurs the future. Nothing will change! Naxals will continue with killing innocent people! The government will continue with sending soldiers to die! After all, for some, ‘Peace is a Limpid Nonsense’!