Is Chhattisgarh govt doing enough about Maoist menace?

While governments of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha seem determined to fight the Maoist menace aggressively, Chhattisgarh government has granted amnesty to some alleged Maoist masterminds under its surrender policy

The recent arrest of Vanthala Ramakrishna, alias Ashok, alias Prabhakar, and the surrender of 60 Maoist operatives, including 33 Communist Party of India (Maoist) members and 27 hardcore militia members, on the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) offer some good news. They clearly indicate that the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, led by Chief Ministers Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and Naveen Patnaik respectively, are determined to eliminate the notorious Maoist menace in the region.

Observers say both the chief ministers have had a tradition of fighting the Maoist menace. Jagan Reddy's father and former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy was seen as the main force that drove out Maoists from AP in the past. The Greyhound squad, the elite anti-Maoist force of Andhra Pradesh, happened to be the most effective under the YSR government (2004-09).

On his part, Patnaik has been dealing very sternly with the Maoist menace since long. Way back in September 2009, he met the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to seek Centre's help to effectively tackle the Maoists and ask for at least seven battalions (about 7,000 personnel) of central para-military force and a chopper for tackling the Maoists.

Under the leaderships of Reddy and Patnaik, the intelligence and security agencies have been doing reasonably well in crushing the Maoist movement in the two states. The Greyhounds have made deep inroads on the Andhra Pradesh side of the AOB. So have the Special Operation Group of Odisha done on its side.

The observers say the determination of the political leadership alone would, however, not suffice to totally eliminate the Maoist menace across the country. One of the most important reasons for the continuing Maoist menace is that the kind of economic development that ought to have been fostered in the post-Independence landscape in our country has not taken place. It is still largely a state of poverty and illiteracy in the forest belts of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.

The political leaderships in these belts need to review the pattern of development and make it pro-people. The Maoists are very active in these regions. They use the lack of development in these belts as a convenient tool to advance their doctrine of capturing political power through a combination of armed insurgency, mass mobilisation and strategic alliances.

Also, there must be effective intelligence and security coordination among the Maoist-affected states to combat the evil. There are reports that some Maoist leaders from the AOB are presently hiding in Chhattisgarh. They are planning to slip back into the AOB during the monsoon season. The government of Chhattisgarh led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel seems to be soft towards the Maoists in the state.

The Chhattisgarh government has granted amnesty to some alleged Maoist masterminds under its surrender policy. The state police seem to be inefficient in stopping the Maoists from moving back into the AOB. Their record in dealing with Maoists has been very disappointing. They have failed to investigate and prosecute the 2017 Burkapal encounter in which 25 CRPF personnel were killed.

The state police nabbed 121 Adivasi men in the Burkapal case. They are now acquitted. Actual Maoist perpetrators are believed to have escaped the police. The police could not prove that the accused men were at the crime spot. The 20 prosecution witnesses could not identify the accused. They even denied that they had made any statements to the police in the case.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.