Too many Cooks spoil the Broth, let's hear it from the Horse's mouth.
To most people outside India the idea of South Asia’s economic juggernaut being hijacked by a ragtag band of Maoist rebels in the jungle might sound outlandish.
But Indians are increasingly aware that the Maoists represent an even greater threat to their country’s security and prosperity than the Islamist militants based over the border in Pakistan.
India consists of 28 states, divided into 626 administrative districts. In 2003, the Home Ministry said that fifty-five districts in nine states were affected by the Maoist insurgency. Last month it said that the rebels had a presence in 223 districts in 20 states.
Officials emphasise that the Naxalites do not control a third of the country and “consistent violence” is experienced in just 90 districts in 13 states. They are, however, deeply concerned at the speed with which the rebels are recruiting among those left behind by India’s economic boom.
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They are conscious, too, of how Maoist rebels in neighbouring Nepal managed to overthrow the world’s last Hindu monarchy and negotiate their way into government within a decade.
Underpinning their concern is the knowledge that India’s boom has enriched a consumer class of 50-100 million people but largely failed to improve living standards for more than 800 million people living on less than $2 a day.
The latter are the Maoists’ primary recruits – poor farmers landless labourers, untouchables and tribal minorities in remote areas – although they also have long-standingenjoy support within India’s urban intellectual elite.
Experts have advised the Government to address the root causes of the problem — poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and the caste system — and to boost investment in local policing — but it appears determined to seek a military solution to the problem, throwing thousands of poorly trained paramilitary forces into unfamiliar territory to hunt down the rebels.
In the meantime, the Maoists are increasingly targeting railway lines and factories to try to cripple economic activity and extort as much as £200 million annually from businesses.
The big fear now is that the Maoists are planning to expand their activities into cities such as Mumbai and Calcutta, already teeming with tens of millions of poor, unemployed and disaffected
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7089497.ece