Call this defence?

The murder of 11 Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) men in the NALCO siege in Orissa exposed Naxal savagery and state ineptness. Now come revelations of the pathetic conditions the jawans lived in. As this newspaper reported on Friday,14 jawans were provided with just one fan in the summer heat; 26 jawans were left to share a single toilet; the water provided to them was muddied with impurities. If this were a factory,it would be a sweatshop. And it would be illegal.

It’s not just that the men were badly treated. Their own security was compromised by inadequate fortifications: the watchtower wasn’t designed to withstand bullets and the rusting fence had snapped. The barracks were temporary structures,not constructed to survive even a sniper attack,let alone the collective might of 300 Naxalites overrunning the place. It was,in every sense,depressingly commonplace; the only unusual part — that living and secured thus,the CISF men actually put up a fight. That they did so is even more extraordinary,given the absolute and shocking failure of the local administration to provide an intelligence alert. Three hundred people cannot organise themselves by stealth; that they kept the advantage of surprise points to gross local failures.

The blame rests with the the Centre (the CISF is a Central force) for equipping its men poorly,and with the Orissa state government for fighting the Naxals so lackadaisically. It is hoped that the lessons from the Nalco siege are learnt quickly. For if this is how the state treats its warriors,the war is already lost.