"They (Naxalites) have proved time and again that they are terrorists.

The act that they carried out in Chhattisgarh (last month) was nothing but a terrorist act," home minister Mr. Shinde said at a press conference here. Every time Naxalites strike, the state wakes up to the problem of their menace. Yes, its true that today, the actions of Naxalites are looking similar to those of terrorists and I have often condemned their actions in the past. And in a democracy, such killings cant be justified. Yet, lets get into some facts. In Chattisgarh, more people get killed of hunger and curable diseases than gunfights. Thats actually putting it mildly. Forget hunger and the poor, more state CRPF jawans posted in the region get killed by mosquito bites than by Maoists! Yes, thats the irony. In the last few years, more have died of malaria than have been killed on duty. These figures do tell a big story. Of course, on one hand it tells the pitiable story of our CRPF jawans. The other side of the story is the story of Indias reality today. The story of how we neglect about 60 percent of our population and condemn them to die of hunger, curable diseases and mosquito bites. Thats roughly about 650 million Indians who live below the internationally accepted poverty line standard of 1.25 dollars per day. While India and the Indian media celebrate the rise of its billionaires in the Forbes lists, the poor die penniless out of hunger unknown and unheard. And despite the perception that the government wants to create of Maoists as terrorists, the truth is also that Maoists are from these very poor families who are marginalised and left to die of hunger. Worldwide, when leaders have kept such huge sections of masses marginalized, there have been revolutions. You ignore human beings and condemn them to die, they will one day believe that picking up arms is a better option than to die without a fight. History is full of heroes who have killed. Those who kill for a cause are celebrated and those who kill without a cause are called murderers. And the cause is also determined by history; not by todays media and their judgement

While the government might be hell-bent on calling the Maoists murderers and terrorists, the fact is that our governments over the years have been full of murderers. Not just in terms of the cases against most of our politicians but also in terms of the way they murder their people by depriving them of food, health and employment the three basic things a government was supposed to be judged by. Our governments, over the years, have killed millions through their unpatriotic acts of selfish politics that of enriching themselves and a handful of business houses while allowing massive poverty to exist all around. And that is why in the eyes of many from Medha Patkar to Mahasweta Devi Maoists are not terrorists or murderers but those poor people who have taken to arms and kill for a cause. They want food. They want masses to rise out of rampant poverty. They want health and freedom from destitution and freedom from an assured death sentence that the government has given them by not providing them the right to live and a life of dignity. Men thrown to die will always try to fight back. Such men have the support of the masses where they fight. They do not go and kill civilians. They do not go and plant bombs in cinema halls. They kill those who they believe are in power or are supporting the state machinery to keep the poor deprived of their rights.