Tamil Nadu has given the Armed Forces its all, be it war with China or Pakistan
Last weekend, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin led a march in Chennai in solidarity with the Indian Armed Forces, which had launched 'Operation Sindoor' targeting terror networks in Pakistan. However, this was not the first time Tamil Nadu stood united — setting aside political differences — to support the efforts of the Centre. In the past, leaders cutting across party lines had rallied behind the Armed Forces, offering everything from blood to bullion during times of war or external aggression.
Support to Nehru
During the Indo-China War in 1962, the DMK, which was in opposition in Madras State, pledged its support to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru-led government. According to a report published in The Hindu on November 13, 1962, DMK founder C.N. Annadurai pledged his party's support to the Centre in resisting the aggression and called for a moratorium on all political agitations and controversies in the country.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Annadurai said, 'The fact that all parties are united in giving the government wide powers is proof positive that there has arisen a stage when petty political differences ought to be submerged, for the one cardinal principle of safeguarding the dignity and independence of the country.'
Meanwhile, the Congress-led government in Madras State formed a 90-member State Committee for National Defence Aid. Chief Minister K. Kamaraj was the chairman of the committee, while Finance Minister M. Bhaktavatsalam served as its treasurer. The committee was tasked with mobilising funds. The government distributed 1,000 hundi boxes in Madras City and 1,500 such boxes in mofussil centres to collect contributions for the National Defence Fund, The Hindu reported on November 15, 1962. The single largest contribution from the State came from Tamil cinema icon and DMK leader M.G. Ramachandran, who donated ₹75,000.
During the 1965 India-Pakistan War, Annadurai expressed the unwavering support of his party towards meeting the threat posed by Pakistan to India's territorial integrity. He also called upon Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to forge a powerful phalanx by uniting the various parties in the country, said a report published in The Hindu on May 4, 1965.
Kamaraj visits border
Kamaraj, then president of the Indian National Congress, visited the Attari-Wagah border along with Home Minister Gulzarilal Nanda and met Indian soldiers to congratulate them on their valour and high morale. He also visited Amritsar to commend the anti-aircraft gunners who shot down two Pakistani Sabre jets.
During the 1971 India-Pakistan War, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council unanimously adopted resolutions on December 6, strongly condemning Pakistani aggression and pledging full cooperation and support to the Centre to repel the attack. The resolution also urged the people of Tamil Nadu to extend wholehearted cooperation to the State government in its efforts to implement any decision taken by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to secure men, material, and weapons.
'The dictator of Pakistan, not being satisfied with the suppression of the voice of democracy in East Bengal and wholesale massacre of the people, had indulged in indirect aggression against India by imposing on it the heavy burden of maintaining the refugees pouring from Bangladesh,' The Hindu reported on December 7, 1971, quoting the resolution.
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who moved the resolution, said the Ministers had decided to contribute ₹500 to the war fund. He appealed to the members of the legislature to contribute a minimum of ₹100. He also announced that steps would be taken to collect blood from donors, and a unit would be set up for this purpose at the Secretariat.
Kamaraj, then leader of the Congress (O), said that at a time the country was facing a war launched by Pakistan, the people must remain united under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, setting aside party, caste, creed, or community differences. In New Delhi, Karunanidhi handed over to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi a parcel of articles transported in six trucks, intended for use by soldiers in forward areas and those undergoing treatment at hospitals. These items, worth ₹3.08 crore, were collected from members of the public by the State Defence Amenities Committee. Later, during Indira Gandhi's visit to Chennai in May 1972, Karunanidhi handed over ₹6 crore, mobilised for the National Defence Fund.
Kargil conflict
During the Kargil conflict in 1999, the ruling DMK resolved to extend full support to the actions taken by the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to counter aggression in Kashmir following the infiltration of extremist elements from Pakistan.
According to a report in The Hindu on June 3, 1999, the DMK passed a separate resolution at its general council meeting, supporting military action in Kargil. Party president and Chief Minister Karunanidhi lauded the courageous and successful efforts of the Indian troops in driving back the infiltrators and foiling their designs. The party's general council also condoled the death of army officers, including Major Saravanan, in the conflict. The Tamil Nadu government also created the Kargil Defence Personnel Fund.
An archival report in The Hindu said ₹1.8 crore was collected within two days of the fund having been set up. Various departments of the government, political parties, educational institutions, associations, and companies, including The Hindu, contributed to the fund.
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Hindustan Times
21 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
In Maoist battle, a 6,000-strong force makes the difference
New Delhi : In August 2005, Basant K Ponwar moved from Mizoram to Chhattisgarh. At the time, Maoists had at least 106 districts in central and eastern India in their grip and were steadily expanding their menacing presence, prompting then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 to call left-wing extremism (LWE) as the country's greatest internal security threat. The government's fight against the rebels was flailing, largely because Maoists were trained in jungle warfare and were picking up young boys and girls from villages to train them as child soldiers. In response, the government's bloated forces were unmotivated and unfamiliar with the forested terrain of southern Chhattisgarh. Growing frustration led to misadventures such as the Salwa Judum, a vigilante force that aimed to push back Maoists but ended up pillaging villages and torturing tribespeople, before being disbanded by the Supreme Court in 2011. The retired brigadier Ponwar, then the head of the army's Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram, took a different approach. The 1971 Indo-Pak war veteran brought his team and set up the elite Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Kanker, about 60km from Raipur. 'To fight in the jungle, you must live in the jungle. Make the jungle your friend. Police had to be reoriented in counter-Naxal operations through a rigorous 45-day programme,' Ponwar told HT. From this initiative was born Chhattisgarh's unique District Reserve Guard (DRG) force in 2007-08, that is at the core of the government's aggressive move to wipe out the decades-old insurgency by next spring. Since 2024, the 6,000-strong force, populated largely by tribal people and former Maoists, has pushed deeper into the Maoist heartland and made inroads into territories considered too hostile even five years ago. 'The locals, who knew the jungle, were formally inducted into the system and further trained in counter-insurgency. Over the years, the recruitment among Naxals also decreased because the local tribal youth would rather join the police,' added Ponwar. Today, DRG personnel are spread across seven Maoism-affected districts in Chhattisgarh, not tasked with regular law-and-order duties, focusing only on guerilla warfare suitable in the dense forests of Abujhmad. The force is involved in almost every key encounter, navigating IEDs, ramming through Maoist ambushes, engaging in gunfights, and guiding other security forces in jungles. This includes the takeover of the key Maoist base at Karregutta hills, a place where forces had never entered before, and the recent killing of top Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao or Basavaraju last month. 'DRG jawans are locals, who know the area and the terrain. Their training ensures that they can work in the toughest conditions. You need such brave local jawans, who are guerilla fighters. There is also a trust factor involved here. Locals trust the DRG personnel,' said Inspector General (Bastar Range) P Sundarraj, one of the first students at the institution. Ahead of the Centre's proposed deadline to end Maoism by March 31, 2026, the National Security Guard's black cat commandos are also conducting joint exercises with the DRG jawans. To understand why DRG was set up, go back to 2006-07. Retired bureaucrat Shivraj Singh, who was Chhattisgarh's chief secretary between 2007 and 2008, said the unit was first mooted after the Centre realised the gravity of left-wing extremism (LWE). 'The Maoist movement had spread throughout Chhattisgarh in the early 2000s. At that time, Maoists functioned like a Spartan Army by taking children and moulding them as soldiers. Local tribespeople were also fed up and approached the police with complaints about the abductions and how Maoists terrorised their village. Police were not adequately trained then as they were largely focused on guarding their posts. I remember then National Security Adviser MK Narayanan constantly telling the Centre how grave the problem had become,' he said. Singh said in meetings between the state and the home ministry, the government decided to build a specialised unit for guerilla warfare against Maoists. 'It started with the police identifying young constables who were residents of Maoist areas, and training them to be part of DRG. These young police officers knew the forest and were well-versed in the topography,' he added. Residents from LWE violence-affected districts are first recruited as constables. Those who show skills in guerilla warfare are handpicked to be in DRG and sent for rigorous training. To underscore their effectiveness, the Chhattisgarh government is now set to approve a proposal to induct around 3,000 more DRG personnel, marking the biggest recruitment in recent years of local tribal men and surrendered Maoists. The state government is also working to make the unit more lucrative by creating a new post of deputy superintendent so that its personnel do not remain stagnant at the inspector level, a senior Chhattisgarh home department official said, asking not to be named. Data on anti-Maoist operations seen by HT showed that between December 1, 2023, and May 20, 2025, at least 401 Maoists were killed in 199 gunfights and 1,355 rebels surrendered. Thirty-seven DRG jawans also died in the attacks. But gun battles are not the most important role of DRG. That would be guiding the forces into the Abhujmad, a 5,000 sq km expanse of uncharted forest spread across Chhattisgarh's four Maoism-affected districts. It is inside this swath of vast uncharted territory where top Maoist leaders traditionally reside, and where the fiercest battles have broken out over the past two years. DRG jawans, born and brought up in the villages within the forest, are the perfect guides to lead the forces inside, said a senior police officer, also requesting anonymity. Anant Ram, a DRG sub-inspector who joined the unit as a constable in 2009, said, 'Intelligence gathering is better when locals are part of the force. The residents are with us.' Another jawan, Binod Kumar, who joined DRG in 2018, said, 'I volunteered to be part of the DRG and was sent to counter-insurgency school. Before that, I had only done regular basic training. Now in DRG, I am proud to be part of a movement.' In the May 21 encounter where Basavaraju was killed, for example, it was the DRG men who broke three layers of his security cordon and killed him in a gunfight, said an additional SP rank officer, who asked not to be named. 'In that operation, around 1,500 DRG from four districts of Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur were involved. The only photograph of Basavaraju we had was over 30 years old as he was never arrested. Some DRG jawans, who were surrendered Maoists and had seen Basavaraju, confirmed his identity. DRG jawans not only knew the area but some of the surrendered Maoists were trained by rebels, so they know the antidote to ambush tactics,' said the officer involved in the operation. Chhattisgarh Police's additional director general, Vivekanand Sinha, said the role of locals in fighting is critical to counter any insurgency. 'DRG jawans are trained in guerilla warfare. They know how and where to move in the jungle. They know the modus operandi of the Maoists whether it is about improvised explosive devices planted everywhere or laying an ambush. When such jawans trained in guerilla warfare work in conjunction with the security forces, it is a formidable combination,' he said. Despite DRG's successes, concerns linger. The biggest among them is the memory of the Salwa Judum. Formed in 2005, Salwa Judum (or peace march in Gondi) was a state-sponsored vigilante force that comprised local tribesmen and former Maoists who were trained by police and given weapons to take part in counter-insurgency operations. But the force displaced large numbers of villagers and killed several people as part of extra judicial operations, accusing the victims of being Maoist collaborators. In July 2011, the Supreme Court declared the militia to be illegal and unconstitutional, and ordered its disbanding. Congress leader Mahendra Karma played a key role in organising the militia. He was killed in an ambush by Maoists in May 2013 along with 27 others, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and former minister Vidya Charan Shukla. 'This is just another armed force. You have just armed them and given them impunity,' said activist Bela Bhatia. But senior police officials underline that DRG is different. Unlike Salwa Judum, where locals were armed and trained by the state, DRG is a specialised unit of the state police. DRG jawans do not conduct operations independently and work directly under the district SP. 'Surrendered Maoists would be about 10% of the force. Salwa Judum was a vigilante group, DRG jawans are not. Surrendered militants go through a rigorous process of first working as gopniya sainiks (secret soldiers) with the police for several months. Based on their performance as informers, they are then trained and inducted as constables. DRG is also successful because Maoists are fighting the same people they had once trained,' a second officer said. Maoists fear DRG jawans, but the latter are also obvious targets. The first casualty in the encounter that killed Basavaraju was also DRG jawan Khotluram Korram. Another jawan, Ramesh Hemla died in an IED blast the following day. The battle is only going to get tougher. Ten months ahead of the March 31, 2026 deadline, there are still around 350 armed Maoist cadres who have refused to surrender. Young commanders such as Hidma and Barse Deva, are expected to put up a stiff fight. To prepare for this, the state government has started shifting DRG personnel in their mid to late 40s to police stations. The unit requires men with young blood, who can trek for 2-3 days in jungles, prepare their own meals, live there, engage in gunfights, and trek back to their base through the same route. This is life in DRG. 'Maoism will soon be a thing of the past. The state may not need so many DRG personnel in the coming years so the older ones are now being shifted to police stations. This is to ensure a smooth transition,' said a DRG person, who asked not to be named. The young jawan looks forward to a day when Chhattisgarh is no longer a red corridor. 'All of us are local tribespeople who have suffered. Our friends, and relatives were abducted by Maoists in the prime of their youth and forced into a life they did not choose. Not just that, we have seen our friends blown to pieces by IEDs planted by Maoists,' he said. For now, he has a job to do and it is personal. 'We have lost too many in this fight. We need to fight for them too,' he said.
Time of India
25 minutes ago
- Time of India
Not dope test, carry out ED's income test on Punjab politicians to unravel money trail with drug sellers, says BJP state chief Sunil Jakhar
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Indian Express
33 minutes ago
- Indian Express
BJP at Shaheen Bagh: Muslim girls should aim for the Army
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