A Security Threat Or a Political Challenge?
Supriya Sharma
THE NAXAL THREAT: CAUSES, STATE RESPONSES AND CONSEQUENCES by V.R. Raghavan Centre for Security Analysis, 2012, 178 pp., 795
April 2012, volume 36, No 4

The killing of Mallojula Koteshwar Rao, known as Kishenji, at the hands of counterinsurgency security forces in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district may be a setback to the Maoist movement but it gives no cause to rejoice… Over and above being a threat to security, the Maoist insurgency is a political question that needs political an-swers… His killing deprives the Maoist move-ment of a leader, but not the causes that sustain it.

Editorial,The Hindu, November 29

The breakthrough…in the Kishenji encounter was preceded by a visible regress in the battle against the Maoists… These columns have time and again warned…about how unaffordable it is to not read Maoist threats and violence for what these are—cuts that not only result in the need-less deaths of civilians and security personnel but also thwart and retard development, the very development essential to uplift the lives of the villagers and at the same time deprive Maoists of recruits.

Editorial,The Indian Express, December 1

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