How Does India Deal with Radicalisation? An Official De-Radicalisation Policy Is Urgently Needed

The Pulwama terrorist attack in which more than 40 CRPF personnel were martyred was executed by a local militant owing allegiance to Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM). The main suspect arrested for the Jammu bus stand bombing hails from Kulgam in south Kashmir. These attacks point towards home-grown radicalisation, whose sources of inspiration may be abroad. The NIA busting an Islamic State (IS) ‘inspired’ module in Amroha on December 26, in conjunction with several other instances discovered earlier, also uncovers a gradual pattern of such radicalisation. A huge local population engulfed by systematic radicalisation can create a major challenge as there seems not much preparedness in this direction. Investigation in these cases reveals instances of internet-facilitated indoctrination and active radicalisation in multiple states. In the meantime, despite the efforts of multiple governments, Left Wing Extremism (LWE) still hasn’t abated. On January 21, Naxalites executed three villagers suspected of being police informers in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. Encounters, ambushes and arrests still occur with regular frequency in the red corridor districts. On the other end of the spectrum increased incidents of mob lynchings, cow vigilantism and the string of assassinations of rationalists such as Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and Gauri Lankesh point towards rising extremism in the right wing cadres.