India is undergoing increasing acts of insurgent activities. It is not unusual that India has such problems. Ever since Independence and the partition of 1947, generations of Indians have had to live with the Kashmir issue on their North-Western frontier -- perennial problem between India and Pakistan.

In the North-East, India has had to deal with China, and prickly issues of sovereignty over one of its states, Arunachal Pradesh, continue to this day. Other theatres such as those in Nagaland, Assam, Amritsar and Tamil Nadu from time to time, have been part and parcel of India's post-Independence history quite apart from its regular religious conflicts.

In recent weeks, rising instances of terror attacks by members of the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGF), the militant wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have gripped the attention of India's senior most political leaders both at the Centre in New Delhi, and in the states where Maoist activities are prevalent.

From a rag-tag and bob-tail group of revolutionaries, the PLGF has grown to an estimated 22,000 armed cadres spread out from the state of Maharashtra in the country's west-coast right across the hinterland of the vast sub-continent down to the east coast state of West Bengal. They have gathered an element of mass support on the way, and the Government of India is now sitting up and taking them seriously in the wake of a renewed wave of attacks on state buildings and vulnerable police stations, hijacking of inter-state trains and disruption of elections.

India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram has acknowledged their presence and their more than nuisance attacks. He admits that these 'Maoists' also known as "Naxalites' roam around at least a third of India's 626 districts, a significant increase to what they were just a few years ago.

The 'Maoists' are an ideological based group. Though they have derived their name from the founder of modern China, Mao Zedong, they appear under the banner of Marxist-Leninism. They are oblivious to the fact that China has moved on from textbook Maoism to embracing foreign capital and converted one of the world's poorest nations of 1.3 billion people, to one that has economically developed to such heights that its foreign investments include those in real estate and stocks in its once arch enemy, the United States of America.

The issues the Maoists raise are those relating to land rights, forest rights, industrialization and development that modern India is progressing with after years of economic stagnation. India's Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the economically backward regions have seen the influx of multi-national companies opening new vistas for the poor people of these areas. But they have become anathema for the Maoists who want India to remain indigenous however much in the doldrums.
The recent political successes of the Maoists in neighboring Nepal must have spurred their Indian counterparts. After years of terrorist confrontations, the Maoists of Nepal managed to depose the discredited monarchy and gain political control in Katmandu.

Like in the case of Nepal, the Indian Maoists believe they can succeed by their methods of terrorism. Minister Chidambaram on Friday appealed to this movement saying "Halt the violence". He said that these were three simple words, and the government could start negotiating with them. But then, clearly, it is not that simple, and is easier said than done.

The matter is quite serious because it was hardly a month ago that the chief of the Indian Air Force made an unprecedented request for Government permission to attack in self-defence against any terrorist attack.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is still reluctant to unleash his Army, already bogged down in the northern frontiers with Pakistan and China, and believes the state police and para-military units can still tackle the Maoist violence. The threat from the Taliban has also complicated home security issues for India. The Taliban leaders operating on the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border have pledged to hit at India.

It's not as if India has never unleashed its Army to tackle internal insurgencies or external threats. It did so in the then East Pakistan to set up the state of Bangladesh. It sent its Army to Amritsar against separatist Sikh elements, and years later the Indian forces were in Sri Lanka, fighting the LTTE. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi paid with their lives for these incursions, but while Sikh terrorism withered away due to that assault, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces had to do the honours in finishing off terrorism in Sri Lanka.

The trend is clear, the Maoists threat to the internal security of India is rising. Devolution of powers and '13th Amendments' are not going to appease these Maoists. There will come a time when they will need more 'fire power' than India deploys now to crush the uprising. If it can negotiate with them, well and good, but if this pattern of violence were to continue unabated, difficult decisions will have to be made.

In these circumstances, and should India need to 'bite the bullet' as it were, Sri Lanka's military expertise ought to come into play. Having succeeded in defeating a cruel and ferocious enemy at home, an enemy conceived, incubated and bred in India, Sri Lanka must at least make that offer for the future betterment of good neighbourly relations.

Last month, a joint military exercise between the Indian Armed Forces and the US Armed Forces may have been aimed at sending signals to China; but India is eroding from within as well. It is in trouble now, though it is coy to admit it. India appears to be confident it could overcome its problems. But its internal security is in jeopardy, and in the circumstances, it is only but right that Sri Lanka, given its wealth of experience in meeting the menace of terrorism, without deploying troops, assist in whatever way if a neighbour is to send out distress signals.

It is time that someone showed the way that without regional co-operation between Governments, the fight against terrorism will be an endless battle.