THE RED DEAD-END

Chandrakant Naidu in Bhopal

FOR over four decades, India’s home ministers seem to be vying for the wooden spoon on the anti-Naxalite battlefront. The ease with which nearly 300 Maoists planned and laid the ambush to kill 26 CRPF men at Burkapal in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh last week startled the security experts and political leaders. The Maoists walked away with over 27 sophisticated weapons. 

As the nucleus of the 106 districts of 10 Red Corridor states, Sukma has been in the news with ominous frequency over the past few years. Being at the tri-junction connecting Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana it facilitates Maoists’ inter-state movement to dodge the police.

“The Naxalites have graduated from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare and have captured nearly 10,000 sq km of the area around Sukma. Their politburo is active in the region,” says former joint director of Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB) and former Director General of Chhattisgarh police, Vishwaranjan. He bore the brunt of intense criticism when 75 CRPF jawans and a state police officer were killed in an ambush in Dantewada on April 6, 2010. The Maoists have gained in strength with multiple layers of leadership. The Maoists now decide the timing of attack. 

“For now I see no light at the end of the tunnel as the state police are not being trained to meet the challenge,” says Vishwaranjan. He feels the Greyhound force of Andhra Pradesh came closest to meeting the challenge. 

No cohesion

Despite multiple committees at the Centre and state level, there is little cohesion and intelligence-sharing between security forces. Former Director General of Madhya Pradesh police Kirpal S Dhillon, better known in Punjab for leading the police during the dark days of militancy, says, “A well-thought out policy needs to be formulated and executed under a joint command. The primacy of state police is lost.” 

Upendra Joshi, another ex-DG who handled the Maoists militancy at its initial stage in Madhya Pradesh, says the genesis of the problem lay in disconnect between the people and the state officials. Barring a few development-oriented officers, others saw the posting in the region as punishment and tried to make the most of it for corrupt practices. Cases of financial irregularities and exploitation of women turned the tribal population against the officials. Joshi says the introduction of Central forces to assist the local police had a flip side. The local police absolved themselves of much of responsibility. The first instance of Naxalite violence was reported in composite Madhya Pradesh in 1967. For half a century, the problem has been allowed to fester.

Lack of policy

Political expediency has often prompted administrative responses. The government claims the Naxalites are acting in desperation because of the pressure by security forces. They targeted the CRPF that was helping in the construction of road in the region because they feel development would expose their sanctuary in the thick forests. 

But, the Maoists’ outlawed outfit, the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), owned up the attack saying it was carried out in retaliation to the alleged sexual violence by security forces against tribal women.

Late last year the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had found several security personnel guilty of raping and physically assaulting at least 16 tribal women in five villages. The commission still awaits the recorded version of another 20 alleged victims of similar sexual violence. The incidents took place in October-November 2015 and the NHRC took suo moto cognizance of news reports after spot investigation.

The NHRC directed the state government to probe the incident within a month and pay compensation to the victims. It asked the DIG (Investigation) to record the statements of the 15 victims who could not testify before the commission or a magistrate. The police say the investigations could take a few months as tracing the victims, who live in remote forests, and bringing them to the court to record their statements is a daunting task.

Left-wing extremism on the rise

• 106 districts in 10 states -- Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, W Bengal, MP, UP and Chhattisgarh — are hit by Maoists. The area is called the Red Corridor (see map).
• The CPI (Maoist), believed behind killing CRPF men in Sukma, was formed in 2004
• The strength of armed Naxalites is estimated around 9,000 with access to 6,500 firearms