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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Red Romance

For long, the Naxalite in news was recognisable by the gun. But the more insidious version of Naxalism has never needed a rifle. It has thrived in varsity classrooms and newspaper and magazine columns, fostered by men and women sympathetic to it. These academics and other members of the so-called intelligentsia have long enjoyed their status as ‘respectable dissenters’ even when their politics offered intellectual alibis for Naxals carrying guns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent...

Red Romance

For long, the Naxalite in news was recognisable by the gun. But the more insidious version of Naxalism has never needed a rifle. It has thrived in varsity classrooms and newspaper and magazine columns, fostered by men and women sympathetic to it. These academics and other members of the so-called intelligentsia have long enjoyed their status as ‘respectable dissenters’ even when their politics offered intellectual alibis for Naxals carrying guns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent Independence Day warning about “dimaagi Naxals” should therefore not be dismissed as another political label. His larger point was that an insurgency does not survive on ammunition alone. It survives on ideas and people willing to make violence appear morally fashionable. The most revealing feature of India’s Maoist movement was never simply its brutality. It was the strange attraction it exercised over sections of the metropolitan Left elite. The Naxalite with an AK-47 could be transformed into a romantic revolutionary while the policeman he killed became an instrument of an oppressive state. This was not merely naïveté. At its ugliest, it was the intellectual laundering of political violence. The fantasy of the romantic revolutionary has always been seductive. In this narrative, amplified through sympathetic media priding itself on telling ‘truth to power,’ India was not a constitutional democracy struggling with inequality and corruption but an inherently illegitimate state waiting to be overthrown. In the minds of this elite Left, Maoist violence has often been recast as resistance while attacks on infrastructure as blows against capitalism. The armed overthrow of the Indian republic was the liberation they craved for. Some of India’s most celebrated intellectuals have flirted dangerously close to that moral inversion. The issue here is whether intellectual prestige can be used to sanitise an ideology whose practitioners have murdered civilians, policemen and public servants and terrorised some of India’s poorest districts. A university cannot be the place where Maoist romanticism acquires the legitimacy of a fashionable campus cause. Professors who turn armed insurgents into heroic revolutionaries are not merely exercising academic freedom. If they knowingly excuse violence, they are helping to construct the moral vocabulary that makes violence possible. Let’s be clear here. A professor who criticises the Indian state is not a Naxal while a journalist who exposes state excesses is not an enemy of India. But an intellectual who repeatedly excuses, glorifies or rationalises political violence cannot hide behind the word ‘dissent.’ India has paid an enormous price for the Maoist fantasy. Thousands have died. Entire regions were held back by fear while development was obstructed. The people supposedly being liberated were often the first to suffer. The armed Naxal is now being pushed towards extinction. But the Indian republic cannot afford to leave behind the romantic mythology that made the gun respectable. A democracy can tolerate dissent. It should never be expected to tolerate the glorification of those who seek its violent destruction.

Rajnath reviews security situation

  • PTI
  • May 9, 2025
  • 2 min read

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday carried out a comprehensive review of the national security scenario with the top military leadership, a day after Pakistan's attempts to target Indian military installations were repelled.


Every aspect of the evolving security situation was discussed in the meeting, it is learnt.


The meeting was attended by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi and Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.


India on Thursday night neutralised Pakistan military's attempt to hit military stations in Jammu, Pathankot, Udhampur and some other locations with missiles and drones.


"Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation along the western border and operational preparedness of the Indian armed forces," a defence ministry spokesperson said.


After the Pakistani attempts were foiled last night, the defence ministry said India remains "fully prepared to defend its sovereignty and ensure the safety of its people." Indian military officials said the Pakistani drones and missiles were effectively engaged by Indian armed forces and the attempts by the enemy were thwarted.


Pakistan's fresh attempts to target Indian military installations came less than 24 hours after a similar attempt.


The target

On Thursday afternoon, the defence ministry said Indian armed forces foiled Pakistan's attempts to target military installations in 15 cities in the northern and western parts of the country using missiles and drones.


It said the Pakistani military attempted on Wednesday night to target Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj.


Defence Minister Singh on Thursday said no limit will become an obstacle to protect India's sovereignty and the nation is fully prepared for such responses.


The Indian armed forces on early Wednesday carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan under Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.


Amit Shah reviews security

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday reviewed the prevailing situation along India's border with Pakistan and airports in the country amid the military conflict between the two countries, sources said.


The meeting came hours after the Border Security Force said it has foiled an infiltration bid from across the International Border in Jammu, killing at least seven terrorists and destroying a Pakistan Rangers post.


Apart from reviewing the security situation along the India-Pakistan border, Shah also took stock of the steps taken to beef up security at airports across the country, the sources said.


While the BSF guards the India-Pakistan border, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) protects the airports in the country, Metro networks and other vital installations.


Those who attended the meeting included Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Director of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka, Directors General of the BSF, CISF and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.


There has been heightened tension between India and Pakistan following India's strike on multiple locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on Wednesday and Pakistan's attempts to hit Indian military sites on Thursday, which were thwarted by the Indian armed forces.

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