PM shows the way

It is not a mutually exclusive choice between use of force and development when it comes to combating Maoists — so said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, rather, the strategy must have both prongs. This might appear a truism, so apparent as to merit no specific mention. But coming as it does in the midst of a raging debate in the polity on the right way to take on the challenge of Maoist insurgency, this unambiguous assertion by Dr Singh has tremendous significance. It gives clarity as to the political direction of the government on tackling the country’s biggest internal security threat.

Further, it constitutes a clear sighted intervention in a debate within the top echelons of the ruling party, which, shorn of certain personal references that did serve to draw much-needed public attention but equally lacked grace, is about alternative policy choices. And, at an operational level, the PM’s observation calls for some policy innovation to carry out this mandate to proceed on both fronts, policing and development. While it has been easy to caricature the strategy followed by the home ministry under Mr P Chidambaram as the GI Joe way, the ministry has an accompanying agenda of development for the areas freed from the Maoists, as home secretary Gopal K Pillai told this paper (ET, Apr 19).

However, what the home ministry can mobilise best is the policing part of the job. The rest is up essentially to state governments, whose job it is to deliver functional governance, generate investment and trigger growth. The Union home ministry cannot ordain a surge of kinetic energy in habitually supine state administrations. That is something that only the political leadership can tackle. However, the home minister is not just any functionary of the ministry; he is one of the senior-most political leaders of the ruling party of the country. Has he summoned that authority to mobilise at least his own party, if not the citizenry in general, to implement some key centrally-funded schemes with mass participation to ensure efficacy, create political agency and marginalise the votaries of insurgency? Clearly not. The PM spoke to civil servants, but his message is to his party leadership as well.

(http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/PM-shows-the-way/articleshow/5846752.cms  23/04/10, Economic Times)