Red Corridor shrinking: Experts

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, December 15

Experts today opined that the Red Corridor, described as Naxal-affected area from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal, was shrinking due to delusion of ideology but still exists in the country.

During a discussion on the topic, ‘Does the Red Corridor Exist’, on the concluding day of the Military Literature Festival here at the Lake Club, panellists, including Director, Counter Insurgency, Brig BK Punwar, former Director, Research and Analysis Wing, KC Verma, and Professor of Sociology in Delhi School of Economics, Nandini Sunder, said from 231 districts from Pashupati to Tirupati, this corridor had now been confined up to 90 districts only. They said multi-pronged strategy involving specialised training to police and development-oriented policies of the government had been instrumental in resolving the problem to a great extent.

They further said even the passing away of senior leadership and moving of some leaders abroad along with dilution of ideology amongst younger cadres too had been instrumental in resolving the problem.

They said contrary to the notion spread in 2004-2005 by Naxals that power flew from barrel of gun most of them were now surrendering as they had been effectively cornered by the security forces.

Batting for political, military, social and economical resolution of the issue, they said Naxals came to prominence due to tremendous failure of the administration. They said until and unless these issues were not resolved effectively permanent resolution was not possible.

The experts also said extreme poverty, exploitation of land and resources for vested interests, non-implementation of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution to safeguard the rights of Scheduled Tribes and other reasons had aggravated the problem.

They said due to naxalism these areas had disconnected from the Constitution and the rule of law, which was dangerous for the unity and integrity of country. They said the essence of the success of naxalites was highly trained and motivated cadre, which was diminishing now.

Prof Sunder said the budget of security forces in naxal-affected areas was double than that of the development of these areas, which needed to be reversed for permanent solution to this problem.