Reasons for some taking pride in being ‘dimagi naxals’

These days the word ‘dimagi naxals” --urban Naxals, and intellectual Naxals- have upset many politicians and the self-styled intellectuals. In fact, many have come forward proudly claiming the title, as if it is a badge of honour that can be flaunted around. But did they ever stop and realize what this ideology has done on the ground. They did not realize – or they deliberately ignored- how many innocent Adivasis, poor villagers, and how many brave police officers and jawans have been killed.

How many were blown up, how many were shot, how many never returned home. And how much emotional suffering their families are still facing. An inexplicable, endless agony that no speech or book can ever describe. A mother waiting for a son who will never come. A wife who became a widow overnight. A child who would never know or see its father at any time in life. These are not innocent thinkers. They are the ones who sit in air-conditioned rooms, universities and newsrooms and mislead our youth. They romanticise violence and encourage young people to revolt against their own nation, against the very constitution that gives them the freedom to speak.

A grouping of political and insurgent groups, naxalites are influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. The Maoist insurgency started after the 1967 uprising in the village of Naxalbari, West Bengal. The ideology takes its name from the village. The movement that started to protect the rights of agricultural workers and tribal forces slowly shifted to violence and war against the law of the land.

The deadliest single ambush by Naxals (Maoist insurgents) resulted in the death of 76 security personnel, including 75 from the CRPF, in Dantewada on an ill-fated April 6, 2010. Their target was always men in uniform and their informers. The exact figure for the total number of people ambushed or killed by Naxals since 1967 does not have an accurate tally, but tens of thousands of casualties have been recorded in the overall conflict. How many women were widowed, how many children were rendered fatherless is beyond anybody’s imagination. These families are destined to suffer the agony and trauma.

The Union Home Minister’s ‘Naxal-free India’ assurance has given a sigh of relief to many families of armed personnel. If this had happened three decades ago it could have saved two most revered ‘TIGERS’, the fearless anti- extremist IPS officers of united Andhra Pradesh and many other armed personnel who lost their lives fighting these ruthless Naxalites in the state.

Notorious Maoist renegade Mohammed Nayeem was killed in an encounter with the police in 2016. Politicians do not react to such type of people’s anarchy till the axe is on their neck. Nayeem had blood on his hands, while he was still one among the outlaws, he killed the Andhra Pradesh IPS officer K S Vyas, an honest, upright professional to the core, in 1993, just after he had finished his evening jog at Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in the heart of Hyderabad.

Vyas, the ‘tiger’, established GreyHounds, the elite anti-Naxal commando force of Andhra Pradesh in 1989. Nearly, 23 years later GreyHounds avenged its founder’s murder. The Police Academy and the town located in Narsingi, Vyas Nagar, Hyderabad, is named after this legendary officer. Nayeem, it was believed, carried many secrets. And dead men tell no tales.

C Umesh Chandra, famously known as the ‘Lion of Kadapa’, is another IPS officer who had set an unparalleled legacy of professional rectitude. He was one of the finest cops who took on Naxals and factionists. And paid for it with his life at a very young age. He was shot dead in broad daylight at Sanjeev Reddy Nagar junction in Hyderabad. Today, a statue in his honor is located at the very spot.

These so-called intellectuals’ never go to the jungle or hold guns themselves. They make our tribal youth hold it. They make our children become cannon fodder while they remain safe to write articles and give lectures. They supply ideology, the justification, and the glorification for that bloodshed, from the cities. And that is perhaps more dangerous.

It is strange that people are vying to own the title of ‘dimagi naxals’. They should instead be asked to go and meet families of those martyrs and the innocent victims. Only then can they understand the price of the ideology they are so proud of. Claiming the title is not pride. It is a shame.

Dr Man Mohan Singh had said in 2009: “Naxalism is the greatest internal security threat to our country”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Hyma Moorty

[email protected]