The experts today opined that the Red Corridor, precisely described as Naxal affected area of Andhra Pradesh to Nepal, was shrinking due to delusion of ideology but still exists in the country.During a discussion on the topic that ‘Does Red Corridor Exist’ during the Military Literature Festival here at the Lake Club, the experts Including Director Counter Insurgency Brigadier BK Punwar, former Director RAW Mr KC Verma and Professor of Sociology in Delhi School of Economics Ms Nandini Sunder said that from 231 districts of the country severely affected by the problem from Pashupati to Tirupati this corridor has been now confined upto 90 districts only. They said that with multi pronged strategy involving the specialised training to highly modernised and combat ready Police to development oriented policies of the government have been instrumental in resolving the problem to a great extent. They further said that even the passing away of senior leadership and moving of some leaders abroad along with dilution of ideology amongst younger cadres too have been instrumental in resolving the problem.They said that contrary to the notion spread in 2004-2005 by Naxals that power flows from barrel of gun most of them were now surrendering as they have been effectively cornered by the security forces.
Batting for Political, military, social and economical resolution of the issue, they said that Naxals came to prominence due to tremendous failure of administration. They said that until and unless these issues were not resolved effectively the permanent resolution of this issue was not possible.The experts also said that extreme poverty, exploitation of land and resources for vested interests, non implementation of fifth scheduled of constitution to safeguard the rights of ST and other reasons had aggravated the problem. They said that that due to naxalism these areas had Liberated from constitution and from Rule of law which was dangerous for the unity and integrity of country. They said that the essence of the success of naxalites was highly trained and motivated cadre which was diminishing now.Prof. Nandini Sunder also said that the budget of security forces in naxal affected areas was double than that of the development of these areas, which needs to be reversed for permanent solution of this problem. She also said that killings of innocent villagers on pretext of naxalites also needs to be checked with a firm hand . She also advocated provision of basic civic amenities to the people of these areas as a part of the Confidence Building Measures.On the occasion noted author Mr Ajay Sahni acted as the Moderator of the session.