I am not too sure about that. My view, from what I have read
so far, and corroborated by the views of a former Chief Secretary of J&K (I think they are called Principal Secretary these days), a Sikh gentleman whose thoughts and opinions I value on par with those of Niaz Sahib, or of Oscar, is that there was a definite pattern of development, in parallel with the INC effort to create movements in the princely states, an effort that was aborted in most places elsewhere. The most successful, as far as I know, was that in Kashmir, where the Muslim Conference (later re-named, in a significant act of secular and political ecumenism, the National Conference) took the lead.But we can discuss this further, if you wish. I have to deliver an essay to
@salarsikander on the development of J&K, and that should take me till early tomorrow; after that?
Yes, I read that, and felt VERY hopeful, it is a good first step, but the training will determine if they are to become colourless paramilitaries or genuine bulwarks for the local police against forces bent on destroying order and then destroying law.
The CRPF are reportedly to be trained in counter-insurgency. Typical, stupid American-police style reaction, making their bloody SWAT teams when their basic policing is so bad and so racist. Here, too, SWAT teams will be completely useless, and an infringement into the territory of the RR and the Special Forces, who should be left alone to do what they do very well. If an RR parallel is sought in the north-east, let the three eminent forces of yester-year receive healing attention: the Eastern Frontier Rifles, as a reserve force, operating out of western West Bengal, and with jurisdiction (subject to law and order being on the States' List of subjects) over Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh; the Assam Rifles, responsible for Arunachal and Assam; the Manipur Rifles, responsible for the lower states among the seven sisters, except Nagaland. Both the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Rifles need to be sensitised first.
The CRPF needs to be positioned between these and the local police, not including the local armed police. They need to be specially trained in what the Green Berets derisively (and wrongly) called winning the hearts and minds of people; almost every successful counter-insurgency leader in India has warned earnestly and long about the need to set right conditions that lead to insurgency in the first place, and they have never been heeded by New Delhi.
A new CRPF needs to be very different from the old. They need to be armed, sufficient to hold off company strength attacks by insurgents in Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha, but they need training, most of all. Both hard training and soft training.
Hard training would include crowd control, management of religious institutions (like the Gorakhpur Math, or Deoband) and their followers in armed mobs or in violent mood, management of NGOs, who inspire violence, management of disturbed localities, where injecting the RR and the Army with AFSPA is far too extreme a step, and simple, infantry tactics to defend against massed Maoist attacks.
Training in law, especially constitutional law, educating them about the limits of authority and about the inalienable rights of citizens; training in psychology, including and especially the psychology of adolescents; training in immersive re-education, to de-toxify brainwashed kids (and adults); training in the literature relating to each particular insurgency, for instance, into the literature relating to historical developments, such as the British treatment of the State of Bastar, in the years before independence, the post-independence history of Bastar, the views of the tribals of the former Bastar state (which is a significant part of Chhatisgarh), into administrative history for the area, legislation and special enactments, especially as relating to forest rights, when dealing with the Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh regions.
This means that we are looking at a new level of recruitment, educated young people, not farmers' sons joining because it is tradition, or due to poverty. We are looking at new specialisations, appropriate to the occasion.
Social media.
You should know that there is an entire and flourishing industry that is invested in the continuation of opposition to India and in violence. They are very powerful and influential.
