To what extent is the surge in Maoist terrorism in India encouraged by the installation of a Maoist led republic in Nepal?
The Indian government has just rushed special troops to the central state of Chhattisgarh, which has a population about the same size as Australia, where 26 security personnel were killed in two separate incidents by Maoists.
The Times of India reports (13/7) that there have been 1,128 such incidents in 11 of India’s states in the past six months, with 455 people murdered including 200 security personnel.
The Maoists have been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as one of the biggest internal security threats. They have killed as many as 2,550 persons across the country in the past four years with the casualty figure increasing every year since 2006.
Almost three years ago, in “The Iranian Experience: What can Nepal Learn?” Preeti Koirala warned Nepal that the 20th century is full of case studies in which the vacuum left by a monarchy has been filled by radical elements almost all the time resorting to dictatorship rather than democracy.
Too often this has lead to wars or threats of war. And not only in the twentieth century. Just think back to France's slide into a terrorist republic in the eigtheenth century which led to years of war. Preeti Koirala refers particularly to the sad case of Iran over the last few decades.
Has Nepal provided another example?