Maoist Insurgency and India's Internal Security Architecture

Book excerpt: The Maoists have taken up arms. Their focus is on tribals and lower caste people for support. Stress is on militarisation with hierarchy and building of ‘People’s Guerrilla Army’ capable of destroying the state machinery. Violence and breakdown of law and order is causing loss of innocent lives and damage to property. The book has been covered in five chapters by the contributors. The first chapter deals with the Maoist insurgency in India and analyses the reasons that led to the Communist Party of India (CPI) taking up the cause of the lower castes and scheduled tribes. The second chapter deals with use of air power in combating the Maoist insurgency. The author has suggested deployment of drones to detect insurgent camps in the forests and use of helicopters for evacuation of casualties and other measures to facilitate logistics support for Countering Insurgency. An appraisal of India’s Intelligence agencies has been covered in Chapter Three. The fourth and fifth chapters are concerning the manner in which the United States has reacted after the 9/11 terrorist attack in the USA and how India reacted after the terrorist attack in Mumbai on 26 November 2008. The author has suggested the need to evolve a Comprehensive Internal Security Policy covering all dimensions and all levels -- political, economic and social.