Re: Maoists open a new front - Kill 9 Policemen
How an Indian views security situation in India:
http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/gyan-at-a-glance/2011/05/25/pak-in-a-mess-but-are-we-any-better/
Pak in a mess, but are we any better?
When suspected Taliban militants attacked the Mehran naval base on Sunday night and set off a 17-hour gunfight, India reacted with concerns over safety of the neighbour’s nuclear arsenal.
The audacious attack, which destroyed two spy aircraft and left 14 persons dead, did expose the growing vulnerability of Pakistan’s military and, justifiably, put the spotlight on its nuclear installations. But beyond those concerns, there are perhaps some lessons for India. While the news of the attack in Pakistan made a splash everywhere, few took note of another militant strike that came hours apart in India’s outback of Chattisgarh. Nine cops were killed in a Maoist ambush along the border of Odisha and Chattisgarh. It may not have been as dramatic as the attack on Mehran, but it reinforced a vulnerability of the Indian establishment that is no less significant than the mess that Pakistan finds itself in today. If a corrupt and decaying political class coupled with a power-hungry military are what have brought Pakistan to this state, we in India face no less a challenge.
Monday’s attack is the third in 10 days. On May 17, rebels set off a landmine blast that killed seven CRPF troopers in Dantewada. And on May 19, the red brigade shot dead a police constable and abducted a special police officer, whom they later killed. The Maoist insurgency, to which a resolution appears increasingly elusive, is as serious a threat as is the Taliban to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
No matter what, we cannot wish it away. Earlier this week, when I traveled to Jangalmahal in West Bengal to cover elections, I was shocked to see the enormous deployment of security. Nowhere in India, except Kashmir, we have ever had such deployment of paramilitary forces to conduct elections. The number of security forces deployed for 14 constituencies in the Maoist belt was more than the deployment for all of Assam. Not just the numbers, the forces were armed with everything from mortar to rocket launchers. There could not be better a proof, than that scene, of how vulnerable our democratic system has come to be.
Yet, we keep ignoring the writing on the wall. Despite a popular upsurge for strong anti-corruption legislation, the row over the Lokpal bill is still on. A handful of telecom company executives and the former telecom minister may have been sent to jail for the 2G scam, but the government has yet to demonstrate a systemic cure for this malaise.
If the political class and the military in Pakistan have taken it to the dogs, India’s ruling elite and its city-bred middle class are doing nothing to resolve the festering conflicts that threaten the stability and progress of this country of 1.2 billion people.