As Prime
Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public gathering in Dantewada in the heart
of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) insurgency-affected
Bastar Division in Chhattisgarh on May 9, 2015, the Maoists registered their
symbolic opposition. A call for a Bastar bandh (general shutdown strike)
was issued and, in the Munga Forest of Sukma District (earlier a part of
Dantewada), just 80 kilometres from the Prime Minister’s meet, the Maoists
‘abducted’ over 200 villagers to hold a praja court (‘people’s court’,
an euphemism for Kangaroo court) at Gaadem and killed a villager, identified as
Sadaram Nag of Marenga village.
Early in the morning of May 9, a few hours before the Prime Minister’s
visit, a large number of armed Maoists descended on Marenga,Tikanpal, Tahakwada
and Junapan villages (under Tongpal Police Station) and herded more than 200
people into the praja court. The villagers were supporting the
construction of a bridge on Baru river near Marenga and some of them were
working there as construction workers. Sadaram, who was killed, was looking
after the construction of the bridge. According to media reports, the villagers
of Marenga wanted a bridge to be constructed near the village and decided to
help the District administration in its construction, much to the displeasure
of the Maoists. A day earlier, on May 8, the Maoists had threatened locals for their support to the construction and
their failure to cooperate with the Maoists. Further, when villagers of
surrounding areas launched a protest in the last week of February 2015 against
the arrest of a suspected Maoist, identified as Hidma, villagers from these four
villages had not taken part in the protest.
On May 3, 2015, the Maoists had killed two villagers from the east
Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh, just across the State border, after
another praja court in Sukma District, suspecting them to be Police informers.
As Bastar emerges as the nucleus of Maoist tactical
counter offensive in the face of shrinking activities in other
States, the Maoists had ambitiously announced their move in the South. In the
recent issue of People’s March (Vol.13, No 3, Jan-March 2015), the
Maoists claimed to have launched a ‘politico-military campaign’ in Kerala and
announced the opening up of a ‘new war front’ in the Sahyadri Hills in the
Kerala-Karnataka-Tamil Nadu tri-junction
area.
However, that plan took a big hit with the arrest of five Maoists,
including Roopesh and his wife Shyna, from a bakery in Karumathampatti in
Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, in the evening of May 4, 2015. Roopesh was in
charge of the CPI-Maoist’s Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee (WGSZC) and
was believed to be leading the Maoist movement in Kerala. He has some 20
criminal cases against him registered in Kerala. The other Maoists arrested
with him were identified as Anoop Mathew George, Kannan and Eswaran.
Based on specific inputs from the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Police,
the arrests were made by the ‘Q’ Branch of Tamil Nadu Police. Addressing a
Press Conference on May 7, 2015, Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala
observed that he regarded the arrests as a “critical turning point” in the
fight against Maoist infiltration, achieved through the concerted efforts of
the Police forces of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Preliminary enquiries revealed that the Maoist couple had lived in a
house in Tirupur since August 2012. They posed as being involved in the
Information Technology business and export of disposable cups, and seldom
interacted with neighbours. Police searched the house on May 7 and seized
hundreds of books, CDs and electronic gadgets. Given the number of books,
electronic gadgets and mobile phones in the house, Police suspect the house was
used as a hub for Maoist propaganda. Police also suspect that Roopesh had
convened a meeting of the WGSZC in Karumanthampatti to plot an armed
insurrection in Andhra Pradesh, in retaliation to the encounter killings of 20
persons at Seshachalam hill ranges near Chittoor. Twenty woodcutters from Tamil
Nadu, found felling red sanders, were killed in an alleged encounter by Andhra
Pradesh Police at Eethakunta in the Seshachalam hills in Chittoor District of
Andhra Pradesh on April 5, 2015. There was a hue and cry against the encounter
and, taking suo moto cognizance of the incident, the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Andhra Pradesh Chief
Secretary and Director General of Police while the Chittoor administration has
ordered a magisterial inquiry.
Roopesh, a law graduate from Thrissur (Kerala) with a diploma in
Information Technology, has allegedly been involved in some 20 criminal cases
in Kerala. Police claim he was among the most wanted Maoist leaders in the
country, and one Police official stated, “It is a big catch. Roopesh was
leading Maoist operations in the tri-junction and involved in the attacks on
forest establishments in Kerala and also on some MNC retail outlets. His wife
Shyna was working as clerk in the Kerala High Court and later joined the
Maoists.”
Roopesh wrote a novel in 2013, which was published by two publishing
houses in Kerala under two different titles – ‘Maoist’ and ‘Vasanthathile
Poomarangal (Flowering trees of spring)’. Shyna was in the news in 2011 after she wrote a letter to
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy seeking action against Police officials who
allegedly harassed her 71-year old mother and her two children, who live in
Thrissur District.
The couple came under the radar of intelligence agencies after they
allegedly gave shelter to Malla Raji Reddy, a CPI-Maoist Politburo member
arrested in 2007 from Angamali in Kerala. [Malla Raji Reddy has since jumped
bail and joined the Maoist underground movement again] Although Shyna was also
arrested in the case, she was released on bail in 2008 and then went
underground.
The couple attracted further Police notice after the Kerala Police
arrested five persons for holding a secret meeting of the Revolutionary
Democratic Front (RDF), a front organisation of the CPI-Maoist, at a lodge in
Mavelikkara, Alappuzha District, on December 29, 2012. While Police arrested
the five persons, including Gopal, a former scientist at the Indira Gandhi
Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, they let off two minors in the incident.
The Police had identified the two minors as daughters of the Maoist couple,
Roopesh and Shyna. The case was later handed over to the National Investigation
Agency (NIA) which, on April 22, 2015, filed a charge sheet against the five
persons.
Not much is known about the other Maoists who were arrested along with
Roopesh. Kannan of Madurai has been an active member of the Maoist movement for
over two decades and remained underground since 1990. Kannan, the son of a
Police constable, escaped from the scene when Naveen, an alleged Maoist leader,
was shot dead near Kodaikanal in 2008.
According to media reports, Anoop started as a Students Federation of
India (SFI) leader, but severed links with SFI on ideological grounds after his
polytechnic days. In 2011, he went to the Gulf, but returned to his native
place Ranni in the Pathanamthitta District of Kerala after a few months. After
his return, he expressed his desire to work for tribals and visited
Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode many times. Since 2012, he stopped
communicating with his family.
The Kerala Police disclosed that they had intensified their efforts to
“deny any operational base” to the armed comrades of arrested Maoist leader
Roopesh. An official identified the prominent members of the unit as Vikram
Gowda, Mahesh akaJayanna, A. Suresh, Latha, Kanya, aka
Kanyakumari, and Sundari aka Geeta, all hailing from the Malnad region
in Karnataka.
Perhaps more consequential is the arrest of K. Muralidharan aka Thomas
Joseph akaAjith (62) with his aide Ismail Hamaza Chiragpilli aka Pravin
aka James Mathew (29) from the Talegaon Dabhade area, located about 30
kilometres from Pune city. Murali, the son of former diplomat Kannamballi
Karunakara Menon, was the secretary of CPI-ML (Naxalbari) before the party merged
with the CPI-Maoist on May 1, 2014. He is believed to have been inducted into
the Maoist Central Committee after the merger. He wrote books and articles
under the pen name Ajith and was probably tasked with countering the
ideological attack on the party.
Ajith and Ismail were living in a plush apartment in the Lotus Villa
building in Talegaon Dabhade, and Ajith was undergoing treatment for some
ailments in Moraya Hospital. His aide Ismail is also a native of Kerala and
hails from its Malappuram District. He was also a part of CPI-ML (Naxalbari)
and later joined CPI-Maoist after the merger.
While the Maoists’ attempts to establish a stronghold in the South have
again received a setback, the movement remains strong in the Bastar area of
Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, the NDA Government at the Centre, which came to power
with a promise of a stronger response to the Maoist insurgency, is yet to give
Cabinet approval to the draft policy prepared by the Union Ministry of Home
Affairs (UMHA) even as it approaches the completion of one year in power.
Moreover, the Prime Minister has signed MoUs worth INR 240 billion in Dantewada, a development that flies in the face
of the draft UMHA policy, which states that developmental works in highly
affected areas should follow after successful security interventions. As
discussed earlier inSAIR,
the policy decision to leave the Modernisation of the Police Force Scheme as
well as all developmental works in the Maoist affected areas to the States is
also likely to be counter-productive.
At a time when the Maoists themselves acknowledge dramatic reverses of
fortune, inadequate policy support to anti-Maoist campaigns can provide the
rebels with much needed breathing space. Incoherence of policy has been the
bane of counter-insurgency efforts for decades, and the present dispensation,
despite a range of successes that have little connection to policy decisions,
demonstrates little evidence of any greater strategic vision. The Maoists have
proven their resilience again and again, and if the State falters, they are
sure to recover, inflicting the burden of response once again on the hapless
SFs that have borne the consequence of political incompetence, mischief and
failure for decades. (Reprinted from the South Asia Intelligence Review) By Fakir Mohan Pradhan, Research
Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
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