Unified command: RSS may back PC

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi | Thursday, July 15, 2010

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram can receive a very secret pat on his back from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for proposing ‘unified command’ for naxal-affected States to tackle the Maoist menace.

Sources in the RSS told The Pioneer that the organisation shares similar concern with the Central Government and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram over Naxal menace.

In a bid to counter Naxal menace, Chidambaram during a review meeting with the heads and representatives of seven naxal States asked the Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal Government to create a unified command for anti-Maoist operations.
One such unified command is headquartered in Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and sources in the Home Ministry said that PC may want a ‘super unified command-and-control room’ in New Delhi.

Though, the RSS sources said no word over current level of offensive against Maoists named as Operation Green hunt and whether not the concept of a unified command will minimise the role of the State Government in security issues.

But in supporting so the sources promptly put the statistics of the collateral damage suffered by the security forces in the past and the way Maoists have been fast covering territory and people on their side.

“RSS is of the view that Naxalism is a national problem,” which is no more a subject of the State Government to deal with after North Block promptly took this matter. “It needs a more resolute step. A unified command will be an effective instrument to sustain a concentrated operation against Naxalites,” he said.

The Sangh’s support to the Government is backed by several reasons apart from its anti-communist approach. In most of the cases in the States like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, both RSS and Maoists are feeding their nationalist and revolutionary agenda on the tribal population.

The RSS has been running its pet project of tribal welfare through Vanavasi Kalyan Parishad from 1952. There are around 14,000 such projects running in such States through which the RSS has been providing education to tribals apart from making tribals aware of their right to water, land, forest and others.

“So far no case of any serious confrontation with the Maoist has been reported. Our cadres do not venture in their area…there is an undefined line and a very defined area of our operation. We have largest operation in Jharkhand. But our area of operation has certainly become limited. The level of threat from Maoists has certainly grown. There is a steep decline of the attendance of Swayamsevaks in the morning sakha,” a senior RSS-BJP leader said.

An RSS insider spoke to The Pioneer and named the areas — Gumla, Palamu, Chatra, Chakradharpur, Simdega and others where the growing presence of Maoism has affected the works of the RSS.

Same RSS leader mentioned till a decade back a Maoist did not mind enrolling their children in RSS run school. It is despite Maoists often alleging Vanavasi Parishad and such a camouflage of conversion.

It was another time and another day: Maoism was in the process in emerging as a menace.