Not a single security personnel was killed in Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland or Mizoram in 2010 and barring Assam and Manipur, other north eastern states have shown remarkable improvement in law and order.
The lesson in this is that “the time has come to change our perceptions of insurgent groups. So long as they are willing to talk and reach honourable and just settlements, we must treat their leaders honourably and fairly; we must give their cadres an opportunity to return to the mainstream of society and start new lives; and we must prepare the people for reconciliation”, Home Minister P Chidambaram said at a meeting of Chief Ministers on internal security inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Chidambaram said nine insurgent groups were in talks with the Government or were poised to commence talks. The government hopes to conclude agreements with some of the groups in the near future, Chidambaram said and promsed the heralding of a new era of development in the North East, known in the past for endemic violence.
While not spelling it out, Chidambaram was saying that the same approach could apply to Left Wing Extremist (LWE)groups. But he said on the LWE in 2010 there has been a stalemate. Neither the state governments nor the CPI Maoist has gained the upper hand.
“The CPI (Maoist) remains a powerful and determined adversary and has added at least four companies to the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA). Its goal remains seizure of power through an “armed liberation struggle.” In 2010, they killed 718 civilians of which 323 were killed after branding them as ‘police informers’. Unlike our security forces, the naxalite cadres are not constrained by the rule of law or the rules of conflict: in areas they dominate they act as judge, jury and executioner. I regret that no representative of civil society has called for an inquiry into the brutal and unlawful killing of civilians and other acts of depredation committed by the CPI (Maoist)” Chidambaram said.
Whole pointing out that only two incidents of terror had occurred in 26 months – in Pune and in Varanasi - Chidambaram warned against an approach that “God was in his heaven and all was right with the world” . He said vigilance is not an ‘on and off’ matter; “vigilance must be 24x7, especially when alerts are issued; otherwise, despite the best of intentions of the police, there will be lapses that will result in casualties”.
Without naming any religious group, he said new groups had raised their head. ‘We cannot shy away from naming these groups or exposing their designs’, he said.
He set up red flags: India lived in a difficult neighbourhod and cross border terrorism, covert support to insurgents, arms smuggling, fake Indian currency notes (FICN), inflow of refugees, and immigration were an offshot of events taking place in neighbouring countries.
However, much of this could be controlled by the determination and grit of state governments, he said. He pointed out that state governments had done their bit: ‘Just before we held the first Chief Ministers’ conference, there were 530,580 vacancies in the State police forces as on 1.1.2009. In two years, you have added 116,903 personnel to your forces.”
In his inaugural address, the Prime Minister said that there was some satisfaction that capacities to meet internal threats had been strengthened. 2010 saw a decrease in the number of incidents and casualties of security forces over the previous year.
However, the number of casualties among civilian has increased. The Prime Minister emphasized the need for police officers to be especially sensitive to the problems faced by the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities and women and felt that changes needed to be made to make policemen people-friendly.
The meeting saw a political slanging match.
When Home Minister P Chidambaram cited the Pune and Varanasi blasts to make the point that prior intelligence warnings given by the Centre were not heeded, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hit back saying the biggest threat to internal security was corruption itself, hinting at the numerous scams that have taken place under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government.
Chief ministers belonging to opposition parties like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattarcharjee and Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa did not attend the conference.
