India is engaged in a decisive battle with Left Wing Extremism or Naxalism. Over the last month and more we have been reading about how the Naxal leadership has either been eliminated, captured or have surrendered. The government has stated that the threat of red terror will formally cease by March next year.
Will this then spark a new beginning? Will the new dawn, mainstream development in the region?
Remember, for seven decades a swathe of land stretching across the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, had been denied the benefits of state sponsored development.
To answer all this and more, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Sunil Kumar, former chief secretary of Chhattisgarh. He is someone who started his career in the Indian Administrative Service from Bastar—at time the nerve centre for naxal terror on Capital Calculus.
Anil Padmanabhan has been a journalist for the last 36 years. He has worked in various capacities in several publications including Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Press Trust of India, Business Standard, Mint and was based in New York for India Today. He was a Nieman Fellow in 2001. He tweets at @capitalcalculus.
