Naxals: Do we understand the problem?

1. 220 districts out of 660 are Naxal effected.
2. X number of Cops have been killed.
3. Our Home Minister has declared a war against Naxals.

These are the kind of news items that you get to see whenever there is any mention about the Naxals in the media. What I would want to hear is how the problem really started, what were the points where we failed as a community,as a state, as a country.Did this problem became so huge all of a sudden?

The media often limits their side of the story to them demanding (besides release of their leaders:) ) all inclusive growth. "All inclusive Growth", wow! What the hell is that!

We have pushed tribals out of forests where they have been co-existing for centuries . Our landless farmers get into a debt of FIVE THOUSAND RUPEES and commit suicide. Our leaders just before the elections use our tax money to waive off their entire loans as nothing but a popular measure. But Equitable Growth, what the hell is that!

See this post which I had made on Praja some time back. At the end, is a mention of the discussion some of us had with Dr Balu from SVYM.

"
The highlight of the day was meeting the person who started all this, Dr R Balu. He told us that his mission was to reduce the inequity between the Urban and Rural India. Then he explained what he meant by inequity. He gave examples like-

1. The Kabini River dam which is in HD Kote supplies 40% of the water supply of Bangalore. Yet,at HD Kote all they get is water enough to irrigate 3000 acres of land!
2. The hydroelectricity generated over there is around 27 MW. If all the electricity needs of HD Kote are meet the maximum demand it can have is 3-4 MW. Yet all they get is 10-12 hours of power supply. All the electricity is sent to Bangalore.
3. The Contribution of the tertiary sector in Karnataka's GDP has increased from 18% some years back to 36% now. However the population engaged in it has grown only from 1.4 % to 2%. During the same time the population involved in Agriculture has declined from 65% to 61% only. In short the inequality is increasing.
4. In Rural India, for every 100 children that start schooling, only 7-8 children complete it. While for Urban India the figure is around 80.

He further said that it is difficult to get industries to HD Kote because of poor infrastructure, even promises of cheap and skilled labour are not enough to compensate for badly built roads and power shortage."

Based on all this, is equitable growth too much to ask? Are these kind of issues at the heart of the trouble which we are facing? Is declaring a "war" part of a long term solution? Don't you think these guys were pushed to the walls by their own state? Did they actually have a choice?

Right now all I have is questions. I hope some body has answers.