Deconstructing Green Hunt

 

 

Green Hunt has not had the desired effect in all the states in which operations were launched to curb the growing clout of the Maoists. The Maoist offer of a 72-day ceasefire can’t be taken as a mark of weakness if one sees their quick spread in West Bengal and Bihar. In Chattisgarh, Maoists have suffered some reverses though but the forces' success is nothing to write home about.

Twelve encounters in three months and 60 Maoists dead. The anti-Naxalite combat force, Cobra, comprising at least 2000 policemen, are searching the jungles of Rajnandgaon and Bastar in Chattisgarh amid human rights groups and sympathisers of the Naxalite movement strongly protesting the ongoing offensive.

According to a certain estimate, there are about 10,000 Maoist rebels active throughout the state and Bastar is their centre. Bastar is surrounded by dense jungles on all sides and has borders with Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. This has hindered police operations before. Porous borders with other states helped Maoists to escape from one state to another. But, now police is adopting a new strategy to plug this gap. If one battalion of police force is conducting operations in Dantewada, another is making its base in Rajanandgaon. This can be a long-drawn battle, DGP Vishwaranjan has said. Along with the Central forces, the state governments of Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are also joining hands to ring the Maoists. One company of force, five helicopters and Rs 100 crore have been requested from the Centre to fight the Maoists.

At least 14 districts of the state have been identified as naxalite strongholds, plans are on to surround them. While talking to TSI, Mukesh Gupta, IG, Durga Range, said that the operation was underway and it was not possible to divulge details. Green Hunt has, of late, started showing positive results. Two weeks back the state police destroyed two Maoist camps. At least 800 local policemen attacked the Naxalite-affected area in Burqlanka. The operation continued for three days and more than seven Maoists were killed. A weapons factory was destroyed. Six policemen also lost their lives during the operation. But despite the set back, Chattisgarh home minister Nankiram Kanwar said that November onwards, the attack on Maoists will be more aggressive and by the end of the year, the Naxalite problem will be wiped off Dantewada district. Kanwar has reportedly announced that if the state is not free of Maoists in one year, he would tender his resignation.

However, going by the pace of the operation, i.e 60 Maoists in three months, it seems his resignation might be the more likely scenario than weeding out 10,000 armed men in one year. Since the Nitish Kumar government came to power four years back, Bihar has not seen Maoist activities on the scale it was used to. But things might be changing fast. After the Central government unleashed Green Hunt, Maoists from Chattisgarh and Orissa are escaping to Bihar. Out of the 44 districts in Bihar, 33 has been declared Naxalite-affected. Earlier, only central Bihar was considered as Maoist stronghold. The Maoists have used this opportunity to expand their territories to districts close to Nepal. Besides, they have strengthened themselves in West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Bhagalpur, Banka, Jamui and Lakhisarai. Apart from reportedly killing 11 villagers in Phulwaria village in Jamui, the Maoists blew up a school building in Maheshwari. Apart from blowing up rail tracks and burning buses and goods vehicles, they killed a cop, Mithilesh Kumar Singh, in Gaya. Bihar’s home secretary Amir Subhani said: “The state government will not use force against the Maoists. We will try to sort the issue by holding talks with them.” He is unhappy that the Maoists have never expressed their desire to have peace talks with the state government. According to additional director general of police (headquarters) U.S. Dutt, raids are being conducted to arrest the Maoists. And whenever such killings take place the state government claims that it does not have enough paramilitary forces to fight the Maoists. According to Dutt, only 23 companies of Central paramilitary forces are available whereas the requirement is for 70 companies.

In West Bengal, the state where Naxalite movement was born, Maoists seem to have struck deep roots all over again. The recent attack on the Silda camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) in West Midnapore district, which claimed lives of 24 jawans, is a firm pointer.

Political interference is putting paid to any hope that the joint forces had pinned on anti-Naxalite operations. The decision to set up a camp near a crowded market was opposed by EFR. Even then, the camp was set up to protect local CPI(M) leaders and their houses. Maoists looted more than 50 firearms, including SLRs, carbines and a huge quantity of ammunition. The state police is woefully short of training and quality equipment. To top it all, the state’s intelligence network had failed miserably.

The state’s confused state of mind expresses itself in its top officials contradicting one another. Just after the incident, DGP Bhupinder Singh said the attack was unexpected and there was no prior information. Home secretary Ardhendu Sen admitted that there was prior information from the state IB two hours before although they were not sure that the Silda camp would be attacked. The DGP countered the home secretary’s version and said that no information reached even the state police HQ.

Special IG, EFR, Binoy Chakraborty held a Press Conference on last Saturday at his office with his face covered. He blamed the West Midnapur SP for not shifting the camp from there despite several requests from EFR.

The Maoists say the Silda operation was a reply for the actions of CPI(M)’s heavily armed cadres who were roaming around freely, torturing people, burning their homes and villages. The cold-blooded murder of lalmohan Tudu, president of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocity (PCPA), a moderate face of the Lalgarh movement, is bound to make the government’s task harder. He was dragged out of his house and shot in his chest from close range. It is being said that CPI(M) cadres accompanied joint forces in carrying out the heinous crime. The ruling party is making itself more and more unpopular.

The Maoists are preparing for their 10th party congress. It is learnt from reliable sources that representatives from every state and Union Territory of India will attend the programme, a clear sign of the Maoist reach and strength. The Maoists feel there is a vacuum as far as Left politics is concerned. They obviously want to feel that void. Whereas the mainstream Left parties’ strength has dwindled, their’s has increased. The 72-day ceasefire offer should be seen in this light. The Maoists sniff a chance of becoming the mainstream Left and Kishenji’s words are not just a mere ploy to buy time to regroup. The Maoists want to negotiate from a point of strength and it will be unwise of the Centre not to realise this.