L W E – Amit Shah’s next big target after abrogating Article 370

It has only been around three months since Amit Shah took charge as the Union Home Minister, however his term has already been highly eventful. While the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories have emerged as the defining feature of his tenure till now, the successful passage of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill 2019, which can be considered as a big step towards strengthening India’s internal security mechanism is another major achievement for Shah just three months into his tenure. While speaking on the Bill, he had made it clear on the floor of the lower house that there is no intent to target social workers but if someone promotes urban Maoism in the garb of ideology, then the government has no sensitivity towards them.

Now, the next target of Amit Shah seems to be left-wing extremism. Shah seems to be in a mood to end Naxal violence, which is already in a state of acute decline. In what shows the resolve of the government to decisively defeat Naxalism, the centre and naxalism-affected states have resolved to jointly fight left-wing extremism.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has declared that Maoists are against the idea of democracy and will be uprooted. Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Raghubar Das (Jharkhand), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and YS Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) attended the meeting where ongoing operations against Naxals and development initiatives were reviewed.

Police and civil officials of 10 naxal-affected states also attended the meeting. The ten naxal-hit states are- Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

After the meeting, Amit Shah tweeted, “Had a very fruitful meeting with the CMs of the LWE affected states. Discussed several issues related to the security & development of these states. Left Wing Extremism is against the idea of democracy and under the leadership of PM @narendramodi we are committed to uproot it.”

It must be noted that the Modi government was able to crush left-wing extremism in its first tenure itself and the fight with left-wing extremism is now in its final phase. Last month TFIPOST reported that Naxal violence has gone down by 43 percent over the last five years when compared to the five year period preceding that. This vital information was disclosed by Union Minister of State for Home G Krishna Reddy. The minister was replying to a written question in the Rajya Sabha. He said that the steadfast government policy has resulted in a decline in Naxal violence and the shrinkage of the geographical area under its control. The last year witnessed a major crackdown by the government and the security forces on left-wing extremism. It also brought about the desired result for security forces with a spate of surrenders and encounters effectively dealing with Naxalism.