From Chhattisgarh, a fatal blow to Maoist insurgency

The winter of early 2014 had waned, and Manmohan Singh too was headed towards the end of a decade-long run as the Prime Minister (PM) of India. Like a whirlwind, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, was poised to storm the portals of power in Delhi. Before officially relinquishing his post, the suave and mild-mannered Singh invited a select group of editors to a breakfast meeting.

A question popped up during the general conversation to list three important issues that remained unfulfilled during his tenure. Of the three issues he cited was the Maoist insurgency, which PM Singh felt, despite the government action, was spreading across the country.

He felt that if the trend continued unabated, then within a few years it would have enough firepower to create a wedge in the centre of India. His fears weren’t unfounded. The Maoist insurgents were running a parallel government in many districts of Maharashtra, Telangana, and West Bengal. Their regional units decided who could bid for government contracts, and whether mobile towers could be set up or not, among other things. Even schools and police stations were under their influence.

The Maoists would organise jan adalats (people’s courts), hold hearings, announce sentences, and deliver punishment. Operation Greenhunt, launched in Singh’s second term, had failed to achieve its objective of ending the insurgency.

Singh’s agenda has been completed largely by the Modi government. Last Wednesday, security forces killed the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Nambala Kesava Rao alias Basavaraju, in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur.

Basavaraju headed the party’s military wing, led the organisation, directed its ideology and the armed struggle. He was brutal in executing his task. The death of more than 100 soldiers is a bloody testimony to his leadership. The government had declared a ₹1.5 crore bounty on his head. His killing is a decisive blow to the Maoists.

The almost 60-year-old Maoist movement had been led by leaders such as Kanu Sanyal, Charu Majumdar, Kishenji, and Ganapathy. Since Kishenji’s killing and Ganapathy’s stepping down from the outfit’s command, doubts were raised about the precipitous fall in the number of leaders with the same depth, ideological conviction, and organising abilities.

At such a critical juncture in Maoist insurgency, Basavaraju took the reins of the CPI (Maoist) in 2017, though the world learned about it only a year later, on November 10, 2018, in an official communique.

Like most of his predecessors, Basavaraju was educated. He had a degree in engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Warangal. During his time in college, he gravitated towards an ultra-Left ideology. Its followers believed in what Kanu Sanyal used to say: Gore saheb gaye par kale saheb aa gaye (White bosses have left, leaving behind black bosses). These ideology-driven young men felt that on August 15, 1947, one set of rulers was replaced by another set of rulers.

But soon, the gun-toting men morphed into a new class of oppressors, losing their moral authority. This is why the Maoists lost support among the people of the jungle, whom the government and we in the cities call tribals. Earlier, these jungles, land, and people acted as their protective shields.

Basavaraju’s post can be filled by any of his lieutenants. But the moot point is whether they can fill the void created by his demise. Analysts say that Basavaraju’s successor will not be able to match his zeal and intellectual prowess. It’s no surprise that Union home minister Amit Shah has given a deadline for March 2026 to end the Maoist menace.

Never before has anyone seen this degree of confidence among the ruling dispensation in tackling the Maoist threat. If the Union government delivers on its promise, it would be a logical end to a bloody insurgency that began in 1967 and kept threatening the Indian State intermittently.

It would help large parts of at least five states connect with the national mainstream. The Maoists and the government did not agree on the development model for this region. This stalled economic progress in the violence-affected areas. The prolonged insurgency has pushed three generations of economically backward tribal communities further into poverty.

If the paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies can end the ‘red war’, the State will gain extra hands and resources to deal with other threats faced by the nation. The day Basavaraju was killed, an espionage module run by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was busted in Delhi. Many people from across the country have been arrested for spying for Pakistan in the past few days. The situation is grave. Social media has made it lethal.

In such a situation, it’s necessary to end the insurgency and get our forces to focus on the bigger challenges that lie ahead.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. The views expressed are personal