NAXALISM, Maoism is in fact, left wing politics that wants to change India through the barrel of the gun and has grown exponentially in the last ten years to take the present menacing position . Earlier in sixties and seventies, it was largely confined to West Bengal, Andhra and Punjab etc. Now it is spread to nearly one third of India and mostly in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra, Maharashtra, Orissa, and West Bengal.

These are largely poor areas, rich in minerals and people do not enjoy what the rest of India had during the last six decades of development. In fact, the governments of India and state governments have systematically deprived the people of their traditional rights in the forests and over the mineral wealth. Politicians and industrialists eyeing this great wealth had been committing one fraud after another. Atrocities have been a routine fate of these hapless. Over one lakh cases were registered against them for trespassing the forests [their own otherwise] ,grazing their cattle or picking up wood and tendu leaves.

In this kind of situation, Maoists found ready ground for their kind of revolution and placed guns in their hands. Experts find the rise in popularity of Maoism or Naxalism coincidental with the rise in iron ore mining profits which increased from around Rs50 per tonne to over Rs. 5000 per tonne in the last ten years?

In fact, the map of Naxalism is also the map of the Indian Minerals? These minerals belong to the people of India but have been handed over to mining barons and corporate in a relationship of mutual benefit, more appropriately described as crony capitalism. It is for this reason that there is big support for these ‘exploiters’ among the two main national parties, the Congress and the BJP.

Experts also estimate that during the tenure of the present home minister, P.Chindambaram as finance minister for nearly five years, the Indian and foreign corporate world, the big industrialists raked in a profit of over two lakh crores through legal and illegal mining, mostly in the iron ore sector? It is alleged that during his tenure as finance minister the royalty on iron ore was not revised and remained at a ridiculous Rs 7 to 27 / tonne ( depending on the type and grade of iron ore) with the average of around Rs 15 per tonne. This royalty was neither made ad valorem nor was it revised from year 2000 onwards when the international price of iron ore rose to dizzy heights.

There are several serious questions that beg answers. Is it not true that the minerals are owned by the people of the State? Is a meager 0.5 % royalty on iron ore profits adequate compensation to the owner of the resources? The ministers have to abide by the Constitution, in particular Article 39(b) and (c) of the constitution which directs the government to use natural resources owned by the people of the country to sub serve the common good?

There would have been no ground for this kind of violent politics if 25% of the mining profit was spent on the poor and the tribals living in the mining area. If the state has not helped uprooting the tribals and the poor by the greedy corporate/mining mafia with active connivance of the law enforcers and policy makers, there shall have been no Maoists?

What prevented the government from nationalizing the iron ore mine industry and handing it over to the public sector and used the profit for benefit of the people? Even a resource rich and affluent country like Australia with a low population base is imposing an additional 40% windfall tax on the mining profits. Can a poor country like India afford to forgo these windfall profits?

Mrs. Sudha Pillai is member secretary of the Planning Commission and has the difficult task of planning development for areas affected by the Maoist problem. Her husband is Union home secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai. Both of them look at this problem differently; in a recent interview Sudha advocated development as antes dote to tackle the Maoists. To the question how this problem be solved? Her answer was: By righting the wrongs. She said, “Development is non-negotiable. But to carry it out, you need security. It's important to ensure there is no wanton destruction of life and property. When killings take place, anything you do to tackle it becomes public. It's not so with development work. She says states like Jharkhand has not even had panchayat elections. Malkangiri in Orissa, Dantewada in Chhattisgarh and parts of Jharkhand are the hotbeds of Left wing extremism.

Read what she says. “It's a fact that tribals have got a raw deal. State governments have acted in a colonial manner, disenfranchising tribals. Managing forest produce is a basic plank. Nobody can take the people's livelihood away. Tribals had a certain way of life in the forests, which need not be romanticized. But they had access to forest produce like honey, lac and resin, through which they earned a living. The biggest failure of state governments is that they denied them access to non-timber forest produce. We have suggested implementation of Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act 1996, which recognizes the traditional rights of tribals over community resources.

Even after 14 years, the 73rd Amendment which gives constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions has still not been implemented everywhere.” Even the recommendations of the planning commission were ignored. Governance has been a problem.

The problem is not military, and has no military solutions. Home minister Chidambaram says he wants the air force not for bombing but for surveillance and logistics. This too is a quasi-military approach, short-sighted and doomed to failure.

She advocates a tripartite solution. The Centre and two states must agree on a joint action plan. The Centre must provide most of the funding for the Dantewada operation, including the cost of roads and telecom.

Some experts say the real answer is to have elected well-funded panchayats in tribal areas and stop alienation of tribal land. These are desirable aims, but the Maoists will not allow parallel centres of power and money to come up via panchayats.

To restore its credibility, the government should resume all the mines which in any case belong to the people and give a solemn pledge that a minimum of 25% of the mining profits will be used for the benefit of the local people. The solution is not only just but one mandated by the Constitution. Honest development based on the resources belonging to the people is the best contraceptive against the Maoist ideology.

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