Francis Fernandes
The recent attack by the Maoists in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh killing personnel of the CRPF is an indication of threat to internal security possibly by external forces. Had such an incident taken place in a colonial territory, the colonial powers would have nipped the movement in the bud. The domical theory of any colonial power is, if one attack is allowed to go scot- free the nationalists or the freedom fighters pose a threat of launching major offensive which result large scale of deaths of soldiers of foreign powers. Colonial powers mercilessly torture and kill the nationalists or freedom fighters and indiscriminately kill innocent civilians and even burn their houses and villages.
But the situation in Chhattisgarh is different, they are Indian nationals influenced by the doctrine of Maoists and majority of the members of this outfit are Hindus followed by Christians which form a small fraction. Communist Party of India Maoists not to be mistaken with CPI and CPI(M) both political parties is a terrorist party of India which aims to overthrow the Government of India through People’s War. It was founded in September 2004, through the merger of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). Ten years later in May 2014 Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari merged into the CPI(Maoist). They are often referred to as intellectuals in reference to the insurrection by the radical Maoist movement in West Bengal in 1967
They claim to be fighting for the tribes in the forest belt around central India and in the states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Currently the party has presence in remote regions of Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh as well as in Bihar and in the tribal dominated borderlands of Chattisgharh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha. The CPI Maoists aims to consolidate its power in this area and establish a Compact Revolutionary Zone from which it can advance the people’s war in other parts of India. In 2013 the Government of India claimed Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were in ideological influence of what it termed as Left Wing Extremism and this was noticed more in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
A question that comes to mind is how CPI Maoist are in possession of advanced ammunition like AK-47 rifles and rocket launchers which costs crores of rupees. It is understandable for ISIS Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to have such armoury as the Gulf rich countries are financing the war in Iraq and Syria and wherever ISIS is involved in armed conflicts. But for the CPI Maoists to possess such armory is a big question. Perhaps the Government of India now with a devastating toll of deaths of CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh will be all out to find the source of supply of advanced armory to the Maoists. It is high time the Government of India looks into this matter seriously, protect our security forces, keep their morals high, supply them with new technology of intelligence and even carry out air surveillance to monitor the movements of Maoists to avoid further re-occurrences of deaths of our security forces.
