The Hindu Business Line : What Jehanabad means

ON NOVEMBER 13 history was once again made in rural India when Maoist guerrillas wrested control of Jehanabad — a district headquarters town in Bihar — for a couple of hours, during which time the jail was overrun. Not only were a number of inmates freed, some were abducted (and killed later), one belonging to an opponent group reportedly having been murdered on the spot.

It is said that about 400 to 500 guerrillas took part in the operation which began around 9.15 p.m, the symbolic high-point of the drama being the moment when the town was plunged into darkness after power lines were cut by the attackers, and announcements were made through a public address system that the "liberators" had come.

Pamphlets left at the site of the incident reportedly carried the message "Poor and petty criminals rot in jail while the bigger ones roam outside".

Later, according to one report in a national daily, one of the raiding party who was caught by the authorities said in hospital that he was a "comrade" and that "all the corrupt scamsters are moving scot free... The unemployed and the poor are kept in jail even after they get bail... The whole system supports the upper caster and the corrupt".

To those who cherish all that a free and democratic India stands for, the frightening aspect of the statement was the declaration "We also have a Chief Minister".

When seen against the background of the total collapse of a district administration (where even the residential compound of the district magistrate was not spared), the declaration does not ring hollow.

What it does, instead, is to portray a chilling scenario of what the situation could look like in the years ahead if the grievances voiced by the assaulting guerrillas are not looked into and rectified by the authorities concerned.

Quite clearly, something has to be done by the powers-that-be to find an answer to the problem. And that solution has to go beyond dispatching National Security Guards to strengthen the civil administration in the affected area, which is mere preventive action and no solution at all.

In fact, if there is a genuine feeling of alienation by the people at large in the area concerned, the sight of gun-toting official personnel could have the exact opposite effect than the one intended by the authorities.

As the literature of people's revolutions repeatedly indicates, a sullen population is the most fertile ground for anti-national forces operating strategically.

This could turn out to be the case at Jehanabad if serious, visible, long-term efforts are not taken to nibble away at the guerrillas' support base in rural pockets.

In recent times, there has been a quiet expansion in Maoist guerrilla activity across a swathe of Indian territory extending from the Nepal border in the north, to Andhra Pradesh in the south, which the authorities are aware of. But the all-important issue is: What is being done to isolate those involved in terrorist activity from their support bases in the rural areas?

No less a person than the Prime Minister himself addressed this problem in general terms as recently as last Tuesday, when he told a university audience in New Delhi: "No region of India can claim that the quality of life in its villages is satisfactory. Be it sanitation, education, public health, electricity, roads, public spaces and environment, whatever be the criteria, rural India deserves a better deal".

More pointedly, he added: "We cannot ignore the dualism in our society and economy any longer. There is an India that wants to move forward even faster.

There is an India that is unable to catch up. The challenge before any Government is immense".

Sure, it is. But while the theory is flawless, what about policy implementation? Indeed, has the administrative edifice at the grassroots level become too rotten to produce the results required? If it has, who will revamp and reform it?

The sand is steadily flowing in the hour-glass, and the nation cannot ignore the implication. More so if Jehanabad is a harbinger of things to come.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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