At least 107 persons have been killed in Left-wing extremist violence across the country this year, including in Gadchiroli. It puts paid to claims made by top government functionaries that India has been spared any internal terrorist violence — obviously lives lost in Maoist IED blasts is not considered extremist violence. In the tribal districts that run through mineral-rich Jharkhand, MP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra, the Maoist movement has not ebbed, as has been repeatedly suggested. The vast swathe of rural India — particularly its tribal heartland — has remained relatively untouched by India’s growth story. If this does not happen, then the great economic drama unfolding in the rest of the country will be perpetually threatened by the Maoist sword.

Source: dna May 03, 2019 01:30 UTC