Bibhu Prasad Routray
On the morning of 18 October 2014, Shiv Kumar, a personnel belonging to
the Chhattisgarh Armed Police was pulled out of a passenger bus in Sukma
district by a group of Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)
cadres and killed. Kumar was ill and was on his way to the hospital when
the bus he had boarded was waylaid by extremists. On the previous day,
Raghunath Kisku, Founder Member, Nagarik Suraksha Samity (NSS), an
anti-Maoist organisation, was killed by Maoists in Ghatshila
sub-division of Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district.
Kumar was the 69th security force personnel and Kisku, the 164th
civilian, to be killed by Maoists in 2014. Other activities perpetrated
by the Maoists till 15 September include 125 attacks on the police; 40
occasions of snatching of weapons from the security forces; and holding
of 25 arms training camps and 46 jan adalats in areas under their
influence. While the occurrence of larger attacks have substantially
decreased, the number of extremism-related incidents roughly remain the
same compared to the corresponding period in 2013 – indicating the
continuation of the challenge.
And yet it is a hard time for the Maoists. Till 15 September, 1129
CPI-Maoist cadres were neutralised, including 49 who were killed in
encounters, and 1080 cadres, arrested. While the outfit can take pride
from the sacrifices made by these men and women, what continues to
trouble it is the perpetual desolation creeping into its ranks and
files, leading to a large number of surrender of its leaders and cadres.
Among the 395 who have surrendered till 30 September are leaders like
Gumudavelli Venkatakrishna Prasad alias Gudsa Usendi, Secretary,
Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), arguably the outfit's most
potent military division based in Bastar and his wife Raji; GP Reddy,
Member, the DKSZC, and his wife Vatti Adime; and Bhagat Jade and his
wife Vanoja. According to the Chhattisgarh police, over 140 cadres have
surrendered between June and September 2014 in Bastar alone, partly due
to the disillusion with the outfit's ideology and partly convinced by
the police's method of highlighting the discrimination suffered by the
local Chhattisgarh cadres at the hands of those drawn from Andhra
Pradesh.
Press statements of the CPI-Maoist, while condemning these surrenders as
demonstration of opportunism and desertion of the movement by corrupt
and politically degenerated persons, admit that the revolution is
currently undergoing its most difficult phase. The CPI-Maoist has
accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in New Delhi of
launching the third phase of Operation Green Hunt, a ruthless war aimed
at annihilating the Maoists who are the "biggest threat" to its
"pro-reform" policies. Asserting that it has merely only engaged in a
"war of self defence," the outfit has called for a "widespread struggle
to fight back the threat by uniting all the revolutionary and democratic
forces."
Its progressively declining capacity to annihilate enemies since 2010 –
in spite of the ability to pull off some of the most spectacular attacks
on security forces and politicians in recent years – has remained a
matter of worry for the CPI-Maoist. Its failure to disrupt the
parliamentary and state assembly elections coupled with a regular
desertion of its cadres has descended as an existential threat on the
outfit that once controlled one-third of the country's geographical
area. Even with the persisting bureaucratic inertia and unimaginative
security force operations, most of the affected states have gained in
their fight against the extremists.
However, the outfit's domination over large swathes of area in
Chhattiagrh, Odisha and Jharkhand with significant presence in states
like Bihar provides it with the ability to continue with its small
ambushes. Its recruitment and fund raising ability appears to have
shrunk. And yet, the outfit harps about a people's militia "now in
thousands" united by apathy of the state and carefully calibrated image
of the government being a representative of the exploitative industrial
houses. Hence, a scenario in which surrenders and killings of the
Maoists would push the outfit into oblivion is remote.
The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), after months of deliberation,
is now armed with a new policy to counter the Maoists. The policy,
subject to cabinet approval, would remain open to use "any element of
national power" against the extremists. Although it does not rule out
peace talks with the extremists, it makes the peace process conditional
to the CPI-Maoist renouncing violence. It plans to make the state police
the lead counter-insurgent force against the extremists while assigning
the central forces, especially the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF),
the responsibility of holding the counter-insurgency grid together
"like a glue." While impressive in its nuances, the approach is guided
by the belief that it is possible to wipe out the Maoists by force
alone.
The impact of the new official counter-Maoist policy remains to be seen.
However, in the clash between a militarily 'down-and-not-yet-out'
CPI-Maoist and the official security apparatus that has its own set of
serious problems, little more than persistence of the logjam can be
expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment