While there are external headwinds to the India growth story, there is a far graver internal threat if it is allowed to spiral out of control, notably, left-wing extremism (LWE) that has a presence in 12 states, some of whom have plentiful reserves of coal, iron ore, aluminium, manganese and so on. These are also tribal heartlands. Unless it is checked, this can have a negative impact on green-field investments in the mining and metal sectors like steel production that underpin rapid economic expansion. In the first decade of the current millennium, LWE’s sway extended over 150 districts accounting for 40% of India’s geographical area and 35% of its population. The big factor of change since then is that the spread of LWE has steadily shrunk with a sharp decline in the number of incidents and fatalities from the peak levels of 2010 according to official data and the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP).

The NDA regime’s efforts against LWE have “gained new energy”, recently reflected in Chhattisgarh in which 29 Maoist cadres were killed by security forces. The resource-rich Chhattisgarh in fact is the main battleground of LWE as it accounts for 15 out of the 70-odd LWE-affected districts in the country. While LWE is in retreat, the internal threat to the growth story remains as the extremists still have significant operational capabilities to take on the Indian State. The challenge of dealing with extremism is more than a law and order problem as there is a socio-economic dimension as well. In many of the affected districts in Chhattisgarh and other states, the extremists run a parallel administration. Extremists may be committed to the violent overthrow of the Indian State but they “operate in a vacuum created by the absence of administrative and political institutions, espouse local demands and take advantage of the disenchantment among the exploited segments of the population”,........

© The Financial Express