After the bloodshed, let there be trust

The killing of Maoist leader Nambala Keshava Rao, a.k.a. Basavaraju, by security forces in Chhattisgarh on May 21 is a major event in India's long-standing efforts to stamp out left-wing extremism (LWE). Basavaraju wasn't just any extremist, he was military strategist of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). A symbol of resistance against perceived statist oppression in Bastar's forests, he was neutralised with 26 others.

According to Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai, the Maoist movement has been shrinking thanks to robust security measures and development and inclusion policies. Home ministry data show that incidents are down 48% over the past decade, and deaths have dropped by 65%. Still, one would be mistaken to confuse the Maoist leadership's collapse with end of conditions that birthed such misplaced resistance. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the two worst Maoist violence-affected states, are also textbook cases of the 'resource curse'. Beneath their red earth lies coal, tin, bauxite and forest wealth. Sustainable management of these resources should have brought prosperity. Instead, they have brought decades of displacement, dispossession and underdevelopment. Schools, roads and hospitals remain patchy, at best. The state mustn't see Basavaraju's death as an invitation to plunder what lies below and in the forests. It will only stoke the same anger among forest-dependent communities that Maoists weaponised.

Victory against LWE must be about trust, inclusion and development. That means putting local voices at the centre, healing wounds left by decades of conflict, providing proper legal aid to those languishing in jail for being 'sympathisers', and rolling out a policy to rehabilitate those displaced by political violence.