The Naxalite movement, starting from a small village Naxalbari (West Bengal) in the year 1967, spread wildly to different parts of the country and violently survived till the death of its founder Charu Mazumdar in the year 1973.   The Government of India’s police action successfully could oppress the movement to certain extent.

However, the movement took another birth in the form of People’s War Group in Andhra Pradesh in 1980 under the leadership of Kondapalli Seetharamaiah and shook the state administration for more than two decades, killing number of innocent civilians and members of armed forces while spreading into other parts of the country. 

Naxalites used to largely depend on lootings for weapons and ammunition from police stations till the year 2000.    Later on there is a sea-change in their tactics and they began to acquire sophisticated weapons and rocket launchers etc., from different organizations and smugglers as well.  They said to have received training in the handling of weapons and IEDs from some ex-LTTE cadres.  They also said to have built nexus with the other extremist organizations. 

The  Naxalite movement now spread into thirteen states of the Indian Union, viz.,  Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana and Tamil Nadu. Among the 13 states, the worst hit states are Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.  

There was a social cause behind the Naxalite movement at its inception, now this cause remained just as a beautiful veil to cover the ugly face.  They are resorting to destruction of public properties and infrastructure facilities being provided in the remote areas and keep on trying to alienate these areas from the main stream life, for their own survival.  The series of massacres they committed in many parts of the country more particularly at Dantewada (Chattisgarh), killing innocent tribes besides members of armed forces proves the ugly face of these naxalites.  They killed hundreds and thousands of people in different parts of the country branding them as police informants.  There is hardly any social cause in their barbaric acts, as is being claimed by them till date.  In their almost five decades struggle, if they introspect, they achieve nothing except for creating terror. 

Naxalite menace has become a threat to the internal security of the nation.  It is undoubtedly a Law and order problem. The Police and Armed forces have the ability to crush out this menace, if they are given free hand to tackle the situation.  The success stories of Punjab Police in tackling the Khalistan movement during early 90’s and Andhra Pradesh Police in tackling the naxalite movement recently reminds us the need of the day to tackle this menace.  Unfortunately, the Union Government lacks a coherent policy and direction to deal this menace.