The Andhra Pradesh government high-level committee on Naxalism, headed by Finance Minister, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has taken the worst possible decision: to raise a tribal battalion to take on the Maoists.
A tribal battalion, staffed by tribal youth from East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, exclusively to counter Maoist insurgence on the Andhra-Odisha-Chhattisgarh border has been recommended by the committee.
Plans are afoot to locate the battalion either at Rampachodavaram in East Godavari or Paderu in Visakhapatnam district.
But the reason behind setting up the battalion is utterly shocking: the government fears that the tribal youth who would be displaced by the ‘Polavaram project’ would be lured to Naxalism.
To prevent this, the government in the name of providing employment is contemplating this move. While it would get an army to fight the Naxals, it would also have fulfilled its promise of generating employment to the displaced. Thus, two birds with one stone!
Andhra Pradesh is highly admired across the country for its effectiveness in dealing with the Naxals. But this proposal is sheer stupidity! It is simply along the lines of the ‘Salwa Judum’ campaign on Chhattisgarh where tribals were recruited as ‘Special Police Officers’ to take on the Maoists.
These poor tribals were absolutely no match for the highly trained Maoists and the end result was that around 3000 tribals were massacred by the Maoists and many more still missing in action as of now.
The ‘Supreme Court’ banned the ‘Salwa Judum’ in 2011 and its founder, Mahendra Karma; himself met a horrifying end at the hands of Maoists in 2013.
The next thing we know is that Chandrababu and his cohorts would be enlisting the displaced farmers of the new capital to fight the ‘ISIS’, in the name of generating employment.
If the government is truly sincere in its intention to provide a suitable compensation project for the displaced people of Polavaram and if it really implements this in practice, then it need not fear that the tribals will join the Maoists.
Education and employment are the need of the hour for these poor tribals. That is the way out for them to have a dignified existence in the wake of diminishing green cover.
The decision to use them as a fighting force against Naxals merely as a political tool to fulfill the government’s promise of employment is nothing short of inhuman. This decision by the government cannot be vindicated even if the tribals were to be trained by the ‘Black Cats’.
The tribals are not expendable! They are our very own people and we need to take care of them and safeguard their interests. Also, when the ‘Salwa Judum’ was termed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, how can the government come up with a similar proposal?
Will Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, KE Krishnamurthy and Siddha Raghava Rao, the committee who came up with this great decision, send their children along with the tribals to fight the Naxals?
Written By Vamsi A
