Countering the Naxalites: Is there a need to 'bring in' the Army?

As the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister emphasized in the Chief Minister's Conference on Internal security in August and again in the Conference of the Director Generals of State Police Forces in September 2009, on the need to modernize the Police force of the country as an anti-dote to the problem of terrorism/ insurgency/ left-wing extremism, the task remains enormous and Herculean. In spite of the near unanimity among the political and strategic community on changing the face of policing in this country, individual states continue to be only reluctant participants in this grand project of the Union Government, a matter which is of considerable importance given that almost all of India's successful counter-insurgency campaigns have been led by the state Police force.