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Naidu ponders anti-Naxal bill as PWG recoups for the kill

Even after days of deliberation, the Andhra Pradesh government is undecided whether or not to go ahead with the proposed legislation to counter the festering Naxalite menace.

Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu is facing resistance and demands for amendments to the proposed draft bill not from the opposition but his own partymen, especially members of Parliament and assembly hailing from the Naxalite-infested Telangana and coastal regions.

Telugu Desam Party bigwigs from the affected areas are already miffed over the Naxalites's reign of terror and hold over local economies that keeps the leaders away from their constituencies. Any stern measures from the establishment, the leaders point out, will only antagonise the Naxalites and further alienate the political class from the masses. "One wrong step now, and we won't even be able to go to our villages," bemoans a legislator.

But the much-pressured police top brass is all for firm steps to check the growing extremist violence. Without proper backing in the form of a strong legislation, the police would be ineffective in shackling the Naxals, a senior police officer told Rediff On The Net.

It is learnt that in some pockets, Naxalites outmanoeuvre the police, thanks to superior assault weapons and better networking. "How can we take them (Naxalites) on when there is no political commitment?" asked the police officer.

TDP insiders say the problem is not one of commitment but compulsions. The draft, it is learnt, includes a few draconian clauses lifted, as it were, from the repealed Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, otherwise known as TADA.

The proposed bill also seeks to place some curbs on the media in its coverage of Naxal-related activities. The likelihood of the issue snowballing into a major controversy is apparently causing concern to Naidu.

He is not in a hurry to make politically incorrect moves, it is said. A few legislators from the Telengana region recall that whenever governments in the past cracked the whip on Naxalites through specially enacted laws, they themselves tasted voters's wrath soon after, be it the TDP rout in 1989 assembly polls or the Congress debacle in 1994.

It was Naidu who set the ball rolling soon after the meeting of four chief ministers of Naxal-affected states (Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa) with Union Home Minister L K Advani.

The latter had asked the troubled states to evolve their own ways of dealing firmly with the extremists, much like Tamil Nadu's controversial Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act. Taking the cue, the Naidu government hit upon the idea of a legislation on the lines of TADA.

The draft of the A P Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act, 1998, incorporates several provisions that seek to place restrictions on performances, meetings, movements, publication of books and other material, and enables forfeiture of property of persons declared offenders under the Act. Punishment for committing an unlawful activity will be imprisonment, ranging from five years to lifetime.

Highly placed sources in the home ministry told Rediff On The Net that it would be difficult to frame a strong legislation without certain clauses of TADA.

"The proposed legislation has to be based on provisions of several other Acts including the A P Public Securities Measures Act, 1951, the A P Habitual Offenders Act, the Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act of 1911 and the A P Suppression of Disturbances Act," said a source.

According to the new draft, 'unlawful activity' is any activity by a person or group of persons committing violence or intimidation or coercion or with the object of creating terror or insecurity which disrupts the supply of essential commodities, transport and communication system, electoral process and industrial production.

In the last couple of months, the outlawed People's War Group has been accused of destroying communication networks, including those of Indian Railways, and disturbing electoral process by calling for 'poll boycott'. The most militant of the PWG's front organisations, the Singareni Karmika Sangham, is engaged in creating unrest in the collieries spread over the three districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar and Warangal.

The PWG has, however, suffered heavy casualties in the recent past, leading to its decision to revamp its cadres. This has become necessary, given the new zeal in the police intelligence set-up. Another worry is infiltration of police into its ranks, the suspected cause for the killing of the PWG's Karimnagar district committee secretary.

The PWG is keen on shoring up its intelligence apparatus by involving people at all levels. The strategy is to enrol even village-level informers and herdsmen to keep a tab on police movement in interior regions. Each and every move of the police is sought to be observed and analysed, to preempt any raids and midnight strikes.

The PWG is believed to have acquired Japanese radio sets to intercept or jam police communications. A document of 'dos' and 'don'ts' during combing operations is in circulation among the PWG cadres.

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