NEW DELHI:Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday exhorted the States and the agencies to have a proactive and aggressive anti-Naxal strategy to deal with the menace in order to instil a sense of fear among the ultras and boost the confidence of the local population.
“Today, we need to consider whether to react only after the occurrence of such events? Should our role not be proactive? Learning from old incidents, we need to bring aggression into our policy. Aggression in thinking, aggression in strategy, aggression in deployment of forces, aggression in operations, aggression in development and aggression in road construction,” Singh said, addressing the Chief Ministers, chief secretaries and directors generals of 10 Naxal-hit States as a review meet to deal with ultra-left extremism.
He further said, “We will have to be cautious that extremely defensive deployment may result in reduction of operational offensive.” Singh said, “The fight against Left Wing Extremism is a coordinated battle on security and development fronts that has to be fought to finish and won. Who could be more suitable and competent than you all? The presence of our forces should instil fear in the Left Wing Extremists and a sense of confidence among the local people and tribals. Let your action speak for itself’.”
Underscoring the need for actionable intelligence in the success of operations, Singh also pitched for use of technology to counter the Naxal violence that has taken a toll of 12,000 lives including 2,700 from the security forces.
The day-long meet was divided into two sessions. While in the first half security issues were discussed, the second session dwelt upon developmental issues.Underscoring the need to choke financing of the Naxal outfits, Singh also sought theatre-specific strategy to deal with the problem. “You are also aware that the situation of Left Wing Extremism in different States is not the same. In different States, to fight Left extremism, there is a need to fight on multiple fronts,” he said.