India’s own Balochistan

Pakistan has implicated India and the Karzai government in Afghanistan to be instigating civil unrest in Pakistan’s wild west: Balochistan. This is again one of the many hundred subterfuges that Pakistan has resorted to in order to veil its ineffective, inefficient governance and its inability to break the nexus between ISI, Army and the Taliban. However, we are not talking of that in this post.

I intend to bring to foreground, the dirt, dust and trash that the Indian government has been sweeping under its carpet for many many years now. This is to deal with in home Militant movements. Sample this:

1.About a month ago, India released a list of 34 militant bodies who it had banned. At that number, India had the largest number of doemstic terror groups. Read: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/India-has-largest-number-of-domestic-terror-groups/articleshow/4694618.cms
2.The Naxalite movements in Lalgarh in West Bengal and Chattisgarh have hogged the limelight in terms of the violence, killing for sometime now.
Read: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Op-Lalgarh-was-waiting-to-happen/articleshow/4664991.cms; http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/12-policemen-killed-in-Naxal-blast-in-Chhattisgarh/articleshow/4510576.cms
3.Naxalite movements are yet again on the up in many more states. Read: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2494458,prtpage-1.cms
4.A considerable portion of our army is battling this in-home terror movement and the resources going waste are enormous.

My tours and travels have taken me around India and it is disconcerting how one part of India is so different/complete opposite from another part. This was the realization between glasses of Vodka at Hotel Hindustan International in Kolkata. Lalgarh was burning 180kms away from where I was sitting. Elsewhere, North Eastern states, have private militias and governments, which refuse to accept that they are the part of the Indian Republic. Private companies, which work in such areas exercise extreme caution in business and are frequently subjected to ransom demands. I have known such instances to happen. Bombs and deaths are commonplace. Travelling east of Guwahati and Jorhat is a peril that you and I can ill afford. Local police is inadequately armed against the AK 47s/56s brandished by these militants.

North Eastern states are to India what Balochistan is to Pakistan.
Corruption, under development, mis-management, bad governance and economic under development stoke the fire of hatred. The gun that fires is obtained from destabilizing external forces and yet the hand that fires it is Indian. An Indian neglected so long, he does-not care to be called one. Anti-terror tactics is good, but this has to be complemented by an all inclusive growth plan. Good governance is good economics and it is time that people from these neglected corners are given a better deal.