Indian Government Bans Maoists as Terrorist Organization

The Union Home Ministry in India brought the CPI-Maoist, an extremist left wing group into the list of terrorist outfits banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. This group was formed by the merger of two earlier banned groups, the Marxist Coordination Committee and the CPI-ML. The Maoists had recently laid siege to the district of Lalgarh in West Bengal, following the Communists' election debacle, and reportedly in protest against police atrocities in the region.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Left Front criticized the move, saying it would not affect matters on the ground and that the problem would have to be solved politically. Demonstrating the ambiguity of having a mainstream Communist political party and also an extremist party, the Left Front termed the actions of the Maoists "misguided. The Forward Bloc secretary Ashok Ghose said,

"We have fundamental differences with the Maoists, but they are not our class enemies. We are against imposing ban on them. We want them to follow the democratic path and we are totally against their politics of terrorism."

The nature of Maoism has a deliberate intent to avoid formal structures and adopted methods that are little different from any global terrorist group. It has a transnational face, violence as a tool to achieve goals of overthrowing the state and uses innocent civilians as shields.

The Naxal/Maoist menace has plagued a large swathe of central India for a long while. The Central and State governments have adopted the two-faced strategy of police brutality at the local level, mostly against villagers accused of harbouring Maoists, while operating at the urban level as if all is well and limiting scrutiny of strategy or causes. This has allowed the problem to metastasize beyond manageable levels and the lack of a single federal agency to address the problem has forced state police departments, under-supplied and under-manned, to work their ineffective labors to little avail. Trans-border arms smuggling keeps the Maoists well supplied and celebrity defenses for the 'cause of the tribals' overlooking the rivers of blood flowing down the villages.

Across the border in Nepal, the Maoist movement succeeded in coming to power, but was unable to sustain their political alliance. Prachanda, the founder of the CPN(ML) was eased out of the ruling alliance and announced that a new 'People's Movement III' would soon be initiated to "sweep away reactionaries, opportunists and traitors" and "establish civilian supremacy."