Playing footsie with Maoists

Public memory is proverbially short. And it is an abiding failing of our policymakers not to get wiser even with the benefit of hindsight. Recall how the Congress, now crying from housetops that Maoists are terrorists, had done a deal with the insurgents on the eve of the 2004 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh. The author of that not-so-secret understanding with the leading lights of the ultra-left guerrillas was the late Y.S.R. Reddy.

As part of the deal, soon after the twin polls, which the Congress won handsomely in Andhra Pradesh, the top command of the Maoists was engaged in negotiations. Representatives of the newly-installed UPA government in New Delhi and the YSR government in Hyderabad met the top leadership of the Maoists in several sessions spread over a couple of weeks.

However, when it became clear that there was no meeting ground between the elected members of the lawfully constituted Central and State governments and a handful of scruffy men and an odd woman or two, all claiming to speak for the people without in anyway providing an iota of evidence of their representative character, the talks broke down as they were bound to. For there could be no common ground between those who were self-avowedly committed to wage a war against the Indian state and those who were its elected representatives and duty-bound to uphold the Constitution.

Within hours of the abrupt breakdown, the anti-Maoist Greyhound squad of elite policemen had the top Maoist leadership in their sights in a jungle not far from Hyderabad. They wanted to siege them. A message was flashed to YSR. He, in turn, sought permission from New Delhi. The then National Security Adviser, the all powerful M.K. Narayanan, however, ordered that the cornered high command of the Maoist guerrillas be allowed a safe exit. That was in 2004.

Admittedly, whether it was part of a tacit understanding, or the Maoists were being genuinely grateful for having been spared their lives, their operations in Andhra Pradesh were overnight scaled down. Instead, Chhattisgarh and, to a lesser extent, Orissa saw further intensification of Maoist insurgency.

Now cut to the last week. The ambush and killing of 24 people, including a few leading lights of the Chhattisgarh Congress, traveling in a convoy through the densely-forested Bastar, was a barbaric act. No sane person can condone it. Naturally, the Congress high command is hopping mad. The leaders of the Chhattisgarh Congress had begun electioneering early in Bastar. In the last Lok Sabha election, the party had managed a lone seat while the ruling BJP won the other eleven. In view of the state elections later this year, it was natural for them to try and renew contact with the voters in the vast region dominated by the tribals and, their self-proclaimed benefactors, the Maoists.

Without in anyway detracting from the enormity of the tragedy that befell the families of the 24 people, including a few who had no connection with politics and were merely serving as drivers and security guards to various VIPs, it must be noted that people like Jairam Ramesh and other bleeding-heart liberals in the ruling party probably for the first time have begun to equate Maoists with terrorists. Not even when they killed a busload of security personnel, including 76 in one incident and over 30 in another, did they deem it fit to call a spade a spade. Those were security personnel, you see. And here we are talking of Congressmen.

Until last week, these people displayed their wholly misplaced sense of liberalism on the sleeves of their well-starched kurtas, dubbing the armed guerrillas waging war against the Indian state as "good but misguided people whose heart is in the right place". Of course, such an approach too was opportunistic. They believed it would help embellish their pro-poor credentials since the Maoists claimed to be waging a struggle on behalf of the poor tribals. Or was it their guilt that nearly six decades of Congress rule had done nothing much to improve the socio-economic lot of the tribal people?

Meanwhile, the unfortunate blame-game that followed the tragic killings in Bastar has now taken an ugly turn. The Congress leadership was unwise to suggest that the state government might have deliberately under-assessed the security threat to the party convoy. But as is now amply clear, the route on the way back was inexplicably changed at the behest of the lone Congress MLA from Bastar, who, incidentally, survived the attack.

Pitting growth against the poor

One of the strangest reasons cited by Aruna Roy for quitting the National Advisory Council, the super Cabinet headed by Sonia Gandhi, is that the UPA government prioritizes growth over welfare of the poor. Roy, however, failed to enlighten us as to how the government can generate funds for more and more freebies for the poor if there is no growth. Growth, we thought, was not the enemy of the poor. In fact, even the existing entitlement schemes could run out of funds if growth suffered any further, having already slipped below 5% in the

last fiscal. Besides, Roy, whose heart, it should be noted, bleeds the most for the poor, might be wrong on facts.

The truth is that the UPA government gave up bothering about growth a long time ago. For evidence, consider the policy paralysis, the abandonment of vital reforms, neglect of infrastructure, various corruption scams et al. Civil society activists like Roy seem to suffer from the illusion that they alone know what is good for the poor and the wretched of this earth. For them, it is either "my way, or highway".

Time they disbanded the NAC, a motley group of leftist do-gooders who only believe in widening the entitlement net without any concern for the state of the public finances. There is no better way to remove poverty than for India to grow consistently at 10% for a decade or so. Entitlement schemes, which civil society activists like Roy canvass, can only distribute poverty, but not help remove want and hunger from the land.

Internet riddles

What does BCCI stand for? Board for Control of Cricket in India. Right? No. Wrong. It stands for Board for Commerce in Cricket in India.

And if pro is the opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? Simple. Congress.