Chhattisgarh played second fiddle to neighboring Andhra Pradesh in the lists of worst affected Maoist or Naxalite states in the year 2005. The state experienced an escalation of violence since the beginning of the euphemistically called Salva Zudoom (peace initiative) in June last year. Data on Maoist violence compiled by the State police revealed that during 2005, 130 villagers, 39 police personnel lost their lives and 70 more were injured in Maoist attacks.

Bhutan’s King is to hand over power to the elected government in 2008. First ever new Constitution, drafted in March 2005, aims to set up a two party democracy after a century of absolute monarchy put in place with British help in 1907. Leaders of Bhutan’s political parties set up in exile (in neighboring India and Nepal) have welcomed King Jigme Singye Wangchuk’s announcement to abdicate the throne in 2008.

The recent announcements by Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), that Maoists are willing to give up arms and join the mainstream necessitates neighbouring India to have a fresh look at the crisis. According to him the Maoists are ready to lay down their arms under UN supervision if there is a consensus for the election to a constituent assembly.

Wasting no time after the ban was imposed in Andhra Pradesh, Naxals launched an attack in Chhattishgarh early this month by triggering a landmine, which left at least 23 security personnel dead. This blast which took place near Padeda village in Dantewada district was powerful enough to awake the State government from deep slumber and complacency. A ban on the Communist Party of India –Maoist (CPI-Maoist), the perpetrator, and its front organizations followed after an emergency meeting of the Cabinet in the State capital Raipur.

It took not less than thirteen months for the Andhra Pradesh government to realize that its much-publicized honeymoon with the Naxal groups was a damp squib. Instead, the Naxals used the period as an opportunity to regroup, rearm and consolidate in new areas.

Of late, Sambalpur district of Orissa becomes a hot bed for Naxal activities. After a period of silence the rebels have again managed to strike terror and this time they have struck hard killing civilians. Late last month, on May 27, the Maoists went on rampage and killed three villagers and injured several others in the Burda village under Jujumura police station. Prior to this the Maoist activities were only confined to abductions followed by ransom. The incident came as a shock as the Maoists generally target the police, forest officials, contractors and other businessmen.

“Let's take an oath [...] no food, no job, no shelter to Bangladeshis". These are frantic calls to the people of Assam to throw out illegal Bangladeshis from the state. The result, thousands of illegal Bangladeshi migrants have left Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Golaghat and a few other areas in Upper Assam during the last couple of weeks. What triggered this exodus was the deadline imposed by an obscure student body, the Chiring Chapori Yuva Morcha (CCYM), formed on April 12 this year.

During mid-1990s the Naxal Movement (Left Wing Extremism) spilled over to Orissa from neighboring Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand region. Now, the Naxal activities have enlarged to nine predominantly tribal districts i.e. Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangapur, Rayagada, Gajapati and Ganjam abutting the Andhra Pradesh and Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts adjacent to Jharkhand. While the above nine districts remains the Naxal stronghold, the movement have also grown stronger in different parts of Sambalpur, Kalahandi, Bolangir, Phulbani, Deogarh, Jharsuguda and Anugul.

The renowned war veteran of Vietnam, General Vo Nguyen Giap has recently called for a novel kind of war on poverty. Can the warmongers accept this realistic call? While the strong argument for the war is maintenance of peace thereby sustaining livelihoods, the truth is however, somewhat different. The pledges for poverty reduction by half by the countries have gone awry as financial assistance is diverted to war. The amount of aid given by developed countries to poorer nations has fallen by half since the 1960s, risking the lives of millions of children.