Are Naxalites another form of terrorism?

It was expected and it happened. Naxalites have attacked polling officers and the polling booths in many places and they have killed many security personnel along with other innocents. First question that comes to mind is that what the government was doing and why the state governments do not provide adequate security cover at the polling booths and the officers on duty? Without any further thinking this reminds of challenge of terrorism country is facing from Taliban and other groups. This is where most of us sitting in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumabi mixing everything together and started calling Naxalites movement as terrorism. I saw some Internet comments where the people says that the Naxalites are danger for the sovereignty of the country. Many of us who have never lived or visited any of the naxal affected area demand for strong military action against the naxalites and crushing them like America is crushing Taliban.

It seems very valid argument and they are terrorist by definition of terrorism on dictionary.com that says

"The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons."

Similar definition has been used in the United Nation Security Council resolution 1373. These definitions do not make any distinction between the act of terror against the public and the government. There is no room to understand the cause of the act either. But one should not forget that this resolution was moved by the USA after the 9/11 attack. It was passed without any discussion in less than 3 minutes because everyone was horrified by the attack on AMERICA and Bush declared that countries had options to be either with America or against America. We should not forget that America is also a country where everyone with a beard is considered taliban and they can not differentiate different kind of turbans either. So using this definition is not fair and can not do any good for India.

We are very proud of freedom and equal rights to all the citizens of the country but we can not ignore that it is only the rich and educated class that think that everyone in the country has freedom. In reality it is very different. This is not about religion or the caste. It is matter of survival for the people. Millions of people in some of the states are living without proper food and water. They are living a worse life we will expect for refugees. But unfortunately no one talk about them. Even the media does not talk about their problems. What is talked in the media is how many police or army men have been killed by the Naxalites in some village. How many times we hear that the public distribution system does not work there. Teacher does not come to school. Doctors do not come to hospitals. All these are elite in some respects and they do not want to work in the villages with the tribes. They want to be posted in the Patna, Ranchi or Bhubneswar but not in the remote areas. They have easy option to live away from these horrible looking remote villages. Bribe to their boss and sign the attendence register for whole month in one day.

All the parties talk about giving rice at Rs 2 and 3 if they come to power but there are two problems. First of all this rice will not reach the area where is needed most. It is insane for any 'intelligent' person to give away rice at such a low rate when the price in the market is over Rs 10 for the same rice. Why not sell in the market. Who care about the poor or the system. Give Rs 1000 to the PDS inspector.

Second these people do not have enough money to buy rice at even discounted price. How can they have money? There are no jobs and no industry.

It is as simple as that. When we hit a small ant too much it will hit us back. Same thing is happening in the Naxal affected areas as well. We (the people living in cities and rich and relatively powerful) are treating them worse than animals for over 60 years. What can they do other than taking arms and hitting back on the administration.

They are not terrorists. They are fighting for some reason. They are not separatist. They do not need separate state. They are not fundamentalist. They are looking for survival.

I hope it will help you in understanding the difference.