What is the issue?
Recent attacks by Maoists suggest that they are focussing on greater militarisation, which needs attention given the past record.
What are the recent developments?
- There has been an uptick in attacks by Maoists, indicating that their ability to strike remains strong.
- In two recent attacks in Chhattisgarh, five persons were killed in a blast in Dantewada district and one BSF sub-inspector was killed in Kanker district.
- Maoists have also owned up responsibility for the killing of TDP MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and his predecessor Siveri in Andhra Pradesh in September.
What is the emerging driving factor?
- These attacks come amid a series of military setbacks to the Maoists in the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border regions.
- Government is using military force while earmarking funds for infrastructure and welfare programmes in left-wing extremism-affected districts.
- Clearly, this strategy of the government has weakened the Maoists.
- Also, paramilitary and police actions have resulted in the death of some senior leaders of the Maoists group.
- Welfare measures, despite haphazard implementation, have enabled outreach into tribal areas.
- These actions have forced the Maoists to retreat further into the forest areas of central and south-central India.
- They are using these as bases to launch attacks, seeking to invite state repression on tribal people and to get recruits.
How has the CPI (M) evolved?
- The People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre of India merged into the CPI (Maoist) in 2004.
- It managed to consolidate its presence across a “Red Corridor”.
- It spanned across the central and north-central India, marked by rural deprivation.
- The CPI (Maoist) has sought to project itself as a revolutionary political movement led by peasants and tribals.
- It sought to rebuild after the failures of the earlier Naxalite movement.
- Rather than focussing on socio-economic struggles, the Maoists relied on waging a military battle against the state to capture power.
- But this was largely due to a gross and mindless misreading of the nature of the Indian state and its democratic institutions.
- As, these actions have resulted in the militarisation of these areas.
- It led to repression of tribal people both by state actions such as the creation of the Salwa Judum(disbanded by judicial order) and Maoist authoritarianism.
- The change of guard in the CPI (Maoist) leadership now suggests that it has moved towards further militarisation to secure its guerrilla forces’ influence.
- So perceivably, there is no end in sight to this insurgency in the near term, a sad reality for tribals caught in the crossfire.
