The combination of policing, rehabilitation packages and welfare succeeded in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and other states, where Maoism had peaked in the 1970s and 80s. Chhattisgarh has been a late entrant in anti-Maoist operations.
The Maoist movement in India is shrinking. But it can still surprise security forces if complacency sets in
By: Editorial
Updated: April 28, 2023 06:40 IST
The Maoists have struck in Chhattisgarh after a lull of two years. Ten jawans of the District Reserve Guard, a special unit of Chhattisgarh police recruited locally, and their civilian driver were killed Wednesday when the extremists triggered a blast using an improvised explosive device in Dantewada district. The security forces will track down the killers for sure, but the deaths are a reminder of how any deviation from the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in Maoist-affected territories is fraught. Complacency can extract a heavy price. The Dantewada incident is of a piece with previous Maoist attacks on security forces — the same season, terrain, and a similar pattern of attack, wherein a convoy tracking intelligence information is targeted with precision and a prior plan.
By all accounts, the Maoist movement in India is shrinking. From being “the greatest internal security threat to our nation” — as the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it in 2009 — the Maoist movement is now restricted to pockets, mainly in Chhattisgarh. As per Home Ministry records, Maoist violence has come down by 77 per cent since 2010, and deaths of security forces and civilians have declined by 90 per cent. The number of Naxal-affected districts has come down from more than 200 in the early 2000s to 90, with violence mostly reported from 25 districts. The Maoist movement is hardly a force now in states such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar, once its strongholds. However, the Maoists have taken advantage of the Southern Chhattisgarh geography, a forested terrain bordering Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana with poor transport and communication facilities, to build a base. In recent years, security operations have turned the heat on the movement and impaired its ability to recruit and operate freely. With the emphasis on violence, the Maoist movement has also hollowed out as a political project and seems hardly in a position to expand its cadre base. At the same time, the state has not only expanded its security muscle but has also built both physical and social infrastructure in left-wing extremism-affected districts and worked on development projects.
The combination of policing, rehabilitation packages and welfare succeeded in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and other states, where Maoism had peaked in the 1970s and 80s. Chhattisgarh has been a late entrant in anti-Maoist operations. It wasted precious time on civilian militias like Salwa Judum before course correcting to train its police force and expand the welfare outreach. This is the right path as evident from the sharp decline in Maoist attacks and killings. The task is to pursue with the strategy — without lowering the guard.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd