@SampanViking
Please get your facts right. while the poverty ratio in india is higher that most countries in the world using a term like "mutual poverty" shows your both your ignorance and your confined view on the subject. while the per capita income of most people is lower than in most western countries taking PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) into account it is adequate to keep them fed, clothed, sheltered with extra left over to save.
I was born and spent most of my youth in india and while my family was by no means rich we never went without any basic amenities and could even afford a few luxuries. around 90% of the people we knew also fell into the same category. while i agree that there is a large number of people who may not count themselves as lucky, its hardly like its something that exists only in india. i have personally seen families in the U.S with 6 or 7 kids living off of social security and state handouts for unemployment checks. (sadly india lacks something similar to the social security system).
to a large part caste and religion don't have much of a role to play in everyday life. although there are occasional caste or religious related violence most of this is sparked by crooked politicians riling up a few thugs to stir up trouble to take away focus from other issues that might put them at a disadvantage.
while i feel that the entire government is a bunch of incompetent , corrupt SOB's and should all be shot by firing squad, there are a few good ones who are trying to do the right thing and we are moving forwards albeit slowly.
The Maoists being in charge of nepal is not considered a major threat, as long as they won in a democratic election they have every right to rule nepal.
The Naxals in india have been repeatedly called to contest in fair democratic elections
and the government has repeatedly tried to work out a deal with them but they refuse to abandon voilence.
While the ideals of the movement were honorable they now have just become a ruthless gang of thugs that go around murdering defenseless villagers for political / financial gain.
the Indian state of West Bengal where the Naxal movement originated has always predominantly been ruled by the CPI (Communist party of india) but even they completely avoid the naxals as theyr extreme left even by the CPI's standards which is far left itself.
@rhino123 & Solarz
From Official sources quoted in the press and from what i know its cauz of the democracy thing. Although any nation will give a very bad impression to other countries if it has to resort to using the army to quash an internal problem and this may have played a part in it as well
. although if you have any educated thoughts to the reason please feel free to share them.
From my experience / knowledge the only time the Indian Army has been used to combat an internal situation is during the reign of the Indra Gandhi when martial law was declared and the army was used to combat Sikh separatists in Operation Blue Star.
This period of martial law was an extremely unpopular decision due to the loss of basic freedom with the imposition of curfew and as the state got the power to hold a person without trial or bail in jail for up-to 90 days. That government was promptly toppled in the next election and no government anywhere would be willing to risk that for any number of reasons.(including but no confined to - preserving their rule).
The reason i had used to U.S example in my earlier post is due to the fact that
1) I have spent a part of my life living in the U.S and have a fairly basic understanding of the system there.
2) It serves as a common standard to compare against, as most users are familiar with their system either from living / spending time there or from the media sources available.
3) The U.S being a democracy as well seemed like a logical choice, since we were taking about what forces a democracy would use in a situation like this.
the comparison is merely superficial to give you an idea of what the us would do and in no way am i comparing the CRPF with the U.S national guard.
quality of equipment and training aside
as i see it an actual break down of the food chain for the forces of both countries would be like this.
U.S. Army - Indian Army
U.S. Army Reserve = Indian Army Reserve
National Guard = Territorial Army
US Border Patrol = Border Security Force, Indo Tibetian Border Patrol
FBI / ATF ect = NSG / NIA ect
??? = CRPF
Sherrifs Department = ???
Police = Police
(i would like to also know how law enforcement / security forces are organised in the PLC if anyone has any thoughts.)
Finally to clarify what ive said in my previous posts which may have caused some confusion for both Rhino123 and solaz.
The CRPF is not the right force to deal with the Naxal situation. the fact they were at all sent there was to act as a show of force rather than take part in any battles. I.E. to scare the maoists into accepting a government deal by saturating the entire maoist affected area with tens of thousands of police officers. (unfortunately for the victims the Maoists seem to have learnt this also)
while i blame the CRPF for the tactical failure of the mission (ie walking into an ambush and following nothing from their jungle warfare training), i COMPLETELY blame the government for the strategic failure in both trying to bargain with terrorists and in sending the wrong force to deal with the actual threat.
although the tactical failure of the CRPF company involved seems painfully obvious now. it would have been easy for them to ignore their training, since the area affected by the naxals is thousands of sqkm and is almost the size of Portugal, while the actual groups of naxals fighters involved is around 20000.
imagine a group of 20 - 30k police officers trying to look for 20k terrorists in an area the size of portugal which is almost completely covered in dense jungle. even with spy satellites and UAV's with thermal / ir sensors penetrating dense foliage to locate the enemy is extremely hard. finding a needle in the proverbial haystack would be much much easier.
the bottom line is that the forces involved had already conducted numerous patrols and had come up empty every time and hence they were more relaxed and did not even remotely imagine that they would stumble into a major ambush by a force with a 4 - 10 (considering naxals almost never come together in such large numbers as they usualy stick to around 20 - 30 per group to avoid detection) time numerical superiority emplaced in an elevated position with a perfect field of fire armed with superior firepower. that they were not expecting the unexpected was what cost them their lives.
As for the Maoists it was certainly a well planned and well executed attack.
