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Monday, Nov 29, 2004

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National

The West Bengal way of tackling extremism

By Marcus Dam

KOLKATA, NOV. 28. Buoyed by its success in making extremists of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) in north Bengal surrender their arms, give up their militant line and return to the mainstream by offering them livelihood opportunities, the West Bengal Government has worked out a similar strategy to counter the militancy in south Bengal.

Without budging from its programme to intensify the crackdown by the police and Central paramilitary forces on the Communist Party of India (Maoist) militants active in the south-western districts, the administration is offering those willing to give up their violent ways an olive branch that promises social rehabilitation and a return to the mainstream. Preference will be given to the most economically backward among them.

As it did with the KLO militants, the State Government has reiterated that there is no question of talks with the naxalites unless they lay down their arms. There will be no compromise with violence, the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has said.

The strategy in the case of the KLO met with considerable success, reducing the outfit to a motley group of barely 25 listed operatives, nearly all of whom, according to the police, are suspected to be sheltered in Bangladesh.

Jharkhand, a safe haven?

As for the naxalites, whose area of activity is largely confined to the three districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, signs of any capitulation, however, are not yet evident as the hard-core among them find a haven in neighbouring Jharkhand after carrying out subversive activity in West Bengal. Moreover, many in the leadership are allegedly non-locals.

But the positive response of the KLO activists to the Government's assurances of social and economic rehabilitation plans is being cited as one that could well be emulated by those, mainly belonging to the tribal communities, vulnerable to being sucked into the vortex of militancy.

This was the basic contention of the Chief Minister at a public meeting at Raghunathpur in Purulia yesterday where he went to the length of assuring those willing to surrender their arms, particularly the economically deprived, that the State would arrange to address their economic needs. Drawing an analogy Mr. Bhattacharjee recalled that a large section of surrendered KLO militants had similarly been provided employment opportunities in keeping with the assurances made to them by the Government.

Central support

The State is also aware that any offensive against the militants requires the support of the Centre and logistic assistance of neighbouring State governments. In the case of the KLO, the Bhutan Government's offensive against militants sheltered in camps in the southern part of that country had gone a long way in ensuring the virtual decimation of the outfit. Similarly, West Bengal has been persistently seeking the co-operation of the Jharkhand Government in a joint offensive against the naxalites.

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