Sri MGR Year 98, 16th August, Sunday
Our beloved Leader Puratchi Thalaivar MGR after assuming the office for the second time, within two months Tamil Nadu had to face problems created by naxalites. During one such incident a bomb blast killed three police men and three naxals, this incident made the Chief Minister MGR think over to neutralise the threat and initiated Operation Naxalite to totally eradicate the naxal problem and MGR gave carte blanche to the Police and the rest is history.
The happenings of the Operation Naxalite is remembered by MGR’s bodyguard K.P.Ramakrishnan below is the article written by R.Govindaraj with the help of his father. Click the below image to enlarge.
More information:
(I) Abstract From the book Naxal Challenge: Causes, Linkages and Policy Options by P.V.Ramana, chapter on Approaches to the Naxalite movement by V.K.Padmanabhan
M.G.Ramachandran, the chief of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), held that ‘no government worth its name could allow a few misguided young men to take the law into their hands and commit lawlessness everywhere’. He launched Operation to wipe out the Naxalite groups in Tamil Nadu, concentrating on North Arcot and Dharmapuri districts.
The naxalite movement faced a plethora of difficulties in the state…. Along with all this, this extremist party’s unswerving belief in the cult of violence invited the wrath of state power…. There were three strategies available to the government to deal with the Naxalite movement: the Gandhian way of educating the Naxalites, the institutional way of blocking their financial and human resources, and suppressing and eliminating them by counter violence…..
(II) Excerpts And from the book MGR: The Man and The Myth authored by DGP Mohandas who was the masterminding the operation along with Walter Devaram.
Naxalite problem:
Naxalite (Communist Party – Marxist – Leninist) activities reached their peak in pockets of North Arcot and Dharmapuri districts in the mid 80’s. While an Inspector of police and two constables were escorting a known extremist in a jeep to Tiruppathur police station, the latter exploded a powerful bomb hidden in his loins killing all of them and destroying the jeep beyond recognition. MGR was quick to react, rushed to Vellore, accompanied by DGP, T.T.P.Abdulla and participated in the funeral of the slain police personnel. He gave a funeral oration which was soul-stirring. He promised to eradicate the naxalite menace in the area within a month. He gave encouragement to the police and local population. He put me in charge of master-minding “Operation Naxalite” with the then DIG (Vellore) Walter Devaram being put in charge of field operations. He finished the job in 20 days and there has been no naxalite activity in the area ever since…
A comparison with the present situation in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Maharashtra (to name a few) where naxalites are whipping up riots and indulging in not only terrorist activity but also kidnapping high civil officials for ransom would justify the police action in Tamil Nadu in 1980 and the foresight of MGR in accurately analysing the shape of things to come, if such activities were not nipped in the bud.
