While there is every reason to feel outraged and be incandescent with rage over the massacre of 76 jawans of the CRPF by Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, the incident should not give rise to misgivings about the need to wage war against Red terror till the last Left extremist is exterminated and the evil ideology that sanctions murder, rape, loot and arson in the name of fighting for the toiling masses is stamped out from this country. Tuesday's shocking attack by the Maoists follows a series of assaults on security forces and their camps in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. Given the sheer ferocity of the attack and the viciousness with which the jawans were killed after the vehicle in which they were travelling was blown up with a landmine, we can come to only one conclusion: The Maoists have declared all-out war on the Indian state and the Government can't afford to be seen as limp-wristed in dealing with them. A bullet-for-bullet policy helped put down Khalistani terrorism in Punjab; given the geographic spread of the Maoist menace, the sophisticated arms at the disposal of the Left extremists and the network of Red terror that covers nearly a third of India's districts across several States, that policy is unlikely to work — it must be amended to two bullets for a bullet. Maoists are cold-blooded killers who are untouched by either remorse or shame for their horrendous misdeeds. They are enemies of the state; they are enemies of the people; they are no friends of the poor and the downtrodden but cynical practitioners of Mao's most famous dictum: Power flows from the barrel of the gun. Their goal is to overthrow the Indian state and supplant our democracy with a Maoist dictatorship no different from the Pol Pot regime. They are social malcontents who revel at the sight of human flesh and gore. They are criminals undeserving of mercy and unfit for rehabilitation in a law-abiding society. Hence, they deserve to be put down pitilessly.
The Prime Minister, who has often eloquently described the Maoist menace as the gravest threat to internal security, should stop wringing his hands — expressions of concern and shock are of no consequence and, frankly meaningless. Instead of bothering about what Left-liberal 'intellectuals' will say and how jholawallahs and fraudulent 'human rights' activists will react, he should allow the Ministry of Home Affairs a free hand in smashing the Maoist insurgency. Those State Governments which plead helplessness or are reluctant to crack down on Red terror, or worse, insist on adopting a soft line of appeasement, should be told to either join the war or stand aside and not be a hindrance. This is not the time for legal niceties and constitutional propriety: We are not dealing with a commonplace law and order problem but a war against the state. Yes, there will be collateral damage and casualties, but we must steel our resolve and not be persuaded by emotional bunkum. No war has been won without the loss of lives; the war on Maoists and Maoism is an asymmetrical war which will result in higher casualties. We should, as a nation, grieve for those of our brave security forces personnel who have lost their lives at the hands of the Maoists. The most fitting tribute to the jawans, policemen and civilians killed by Maoists would be to swear terrible vengeance and not rest till the killers get their just desserts.
