Nagpur: Twenty-four hours after Maoists appealed for truce, there’s no indication of a ceasefire or slowing down ongoing operations against guerrillas in central India’s Dandakaranya region straddling Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and parts of Telangana and Odisha. With failed peace talks with Maoists in the past, especially with the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh govts, security and intelligence forces engaged in left-wing extremism in central India seemed to be in no mood to slam brakes on commando operations.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, in a message to The Times of India, said Maoists should adopt the state’s surrender policy first and return to the mainstream, if they want truce. With Union home minister Amit Shah’s impending visit to Bastar, security officials told TOI that Maoists are merely throwing a political challenge. Citing failures of govts and intellectuals between 1997-2004, former top cops of Maharashtra like KP Raghuvanshi and D Sivanandan called for caution, before falling into the Maoist trap.
“We are on the verge of winning this war, and now Maoists are talking peace. This is nothing but a ploy for a breather only to regroup, rebuild, revamp and revive before striking back with vengeance,” warned former Maharashtra director general of police, Sivanandan, who was also former state intelligence commissioner and DIG, Naxal range. With the stress on ‘Surrender First, Peace to Follow’ policy, the tactical input-based operations and area domination exercises remained top priority, 24 hours after the truce missive was sent to media houses by Maoist politburo and central committee member, Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Bhupathi, who released the press note under the pseudonym, Abhay.
Bhupathi’s letter left Maharashtra’s anti-Naxal operation apparatus intrigued as his wife, Tarakka, surrendered last year before Gadchiroli police. “Why did Bhupathi send his wife to surrender and then issue the letter for peace talks? Why is he refraining from adopting the surrender policy,” asked a senior official of Maharashtra. Bhupathi is learnt to have shifted from the Maoist headquarters of Abujmarh and is digging in his heels on the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border, as per intelligence sources.
In 2010, senior Maoist leader Azad, now neutralised, made a failed attempt to initiate a peace deal. And this followed up by activist late Swami Agnivesh whose efforts went in vain. In 2022, then Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel too made an appeal for peace talks, but it was the Maoists who turned it down.
Security experts with vast experience in tackling Maoist insurgency cautioned the govt about the sinister designs of guerillas. Former Maharashtra state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief KP Raghuvanshi, credited with the creation of the elite C-60 commando unit in Gadchiroli, said, Maoists’ ploy to call for peace talk is part of their retreat strategy. “Govt had repeatedly sought talks, but Maoists remained fixated on their agenda. Now, their backbone is broken. They want time to recruit, regroup and reshape their strategies,” said Raghuvanshi, adding Maoists have deprived tribals of development in their liberated zones for more than 70 years. “They want the peace talks for themselves, not for tribals,” said Raghuvanshi, urging Maoists to surrender and return to the mainstream.
Sivanandan stated there is no room to assume guerrillas want peace for the people. “History has shown Maoists can’t be trusted. They want power and bloodshed through the barrel of the gun. The truce call should be taken with a pinch of salt,” said Sivanandan.
