The ease with which the Maoists in India are wiping out entire squads of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel through daring and vicious attacks suggests that the states and the centre are failing to tackle the problem.
There is another acute minus: the very apparent lack of strategy and planning by the security forces as they go about trying to combat democratic India's deadliest internal threat.
The recent attack, in which 26 CRPF personnel were ruthlessly wiped out in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, is a signal that India's political leadership needs to rethink its strategy. With a severe toll being taken on CRPF lives, it is evident that the current approach is not working.
The CRPF's repeated lapses have shown that they are not quite as versed in the art of guerrilla warfare as their enemy and therefore the call goes out for direct army action. The Naxalites are growing bolder with every new success and this gives the problem a serious dimension. They do not believe in taking prisoners and are allergic to showing mercy during combat. The way they mutilated their enemy, after killing them, is a case in point. The centre needs to show fresh fortitude. When dogs go mad the only solution is to put them down.
