In its long drawn war with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), New Delhi has allegedly engaged Israeli secret agency Mossad to train up high ranking police officers in the techniques of targeted assassinations. The main objective is to kill the prominent leaders of the Maoist to render the party headless and thus weaken the movement that has posed the gravest threat to the internal security of India. Anti-maoist Operation Green Hunt involving about one lakh paramilitary forces backed by the logistic support from the army in addition to the police force are deployed in the red corridor covering six states from Bihar in the north to Andhra Pradesh in the south.
Maoist guerrillas are said to be undaunted. Claiming they are fighting for the poor, marginalized and landless peasants, tribal and dalit people, the Maoists have mobilized them to form committees - Peoples Committee to Resist Police Atrocities - in their respective areas. What is worrying most the Indian government is that the Maoists have been recruiting young men and women and training them deep in jungles. Reports say a new recruit is paid Rs. 3000 per month and a cut in tolls money which is estimated at millions collected from politicians, business people as well as high government officials. With high rate of unemployment in backward states there is no dearth in recruit.
That Mossad has been engaged by the government for training in modern techniques to deal with the insurgency was revealed by Arundhati Roy, international prize winning writer and sympathizer to the cause of the Maoist movement. In her lengthy article 'Walking with the Comrades' published in the Delhi-based weekly Outlook, Roy has given a vivid picture of life and living of tribal and dalit people in the backward areas of Jharkhand, atrocities of security forces, rise of Maoist guerrilla force with about 45 percent women cadres. "Police come whenever they need women or chickens," a women guerrilla cadre told her during her visit to the area in the middle of March.
Across the Indravati River in Jharkhand, the area controlled by the Maoists, "is the place police call Pakistan," she wrote.
The Deccan Chronicle in a February 24 editorial conceded that the Maoist insurgency is centred in areas that are India's wealthiest mineral belt which is being eyed by the government and by foreign and Indian mining interests. Tribal people are driven out of their homes so that the government can go ahead with its industrialization programme.
Arundhati Roy and a host of intellectuals, human rights organizations and even politicians are opposed to Operation Green Hunt. They say paramilitary troops and elite forces like COBRA are killing innocent tribal people in the name of Maoists who are not easy to reach. The sympathizers view that workers and toilers must oppose the state's counterinsurgency war against the Maoists. Operation Green Hunt is directed at upholding and intensifying the oppression of the tribal peoples. Moreover, the Indian ruling elite is using the purported threat of Maoist "terrorism" to justify the state repression of all manner of political movements.
Varvara Rao, well known human rights activist, said security forces claim of encounters with Maoist are fake. Activists of the peoples committees in tribal areas are arrested and shot dead. Asit Mahato, leader of the people's resistance committee in West Midnapore, West Bengal, said people have fled homes in the face of arrest, rape and harassment by the joint forces in the name of search for Maoist. Sixty-five year old Gouranga was beaten to death on March 28 and the body was thrown into the canal. Police plead ignorance when enquired about the missing villagers.
Kabir Sumon, Trinamool Congress MP from West Bengal, resigned from the party and Lok Sava on March 29, ostensibly protesting Operation Green Hunt. He said Trinamool slogan 'Ma, Mati O Manush' has proved fake. They failed to take stand by the Peoples Committee when its president Tudu was shot dead by the joint forces.
The biggest anti-maoist operation was carried out on March 25 in West Midnapore district. Joint forces admitted they fired about 3000 gunshots and barrages of mortar shells during the 12-hour operation. As lessons given by the Mossad, joint forces targeted the Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenjee, who is reportedly received bullet in shoulder and leg, his comrades have taken him to hideouts in adjacent jungles of Jharkhand. Kishenjee who had declared to occupy Calcutta by 2012 last month offered unconditional talks with New Delhi, which was supported by a section of intellectuals and human right organizations. But the government refused to talk until the Maoists abjure violence.
The reaction to Midnapore operation was sharp. "We will reply each bullet that hit Kishenjee and comrade Bikram," said an e-mail to Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa with threat of blowing up his home and installations of government and security forces in the state. Police investigation showed the e-mail had its server far away in Czech Republic.
It is about two months the anti-maoist operation has been launched. The government has claimed arrest of a number of Maoist leaders, destroy some of their hideouts, reclaim few areas from Maoist control but the security forces are yet to make any significant dent in the Maoist movement.
Maoist guerrillas are said to be undaunted. Claiming they are fighting for the poor, marginalized and landless peasants, tribal and dalit people, the Maoists have mobilized them to form committees - Peoples Committee to Resist Police Atrocities - in their respective areas. What is worrying most the Indian government is that the Maoists have been recruiting young men and women and training them deep in jungles. Reports say a new recruit is paid Rs. 3000 per month and a cut in tolls money which is estimated at millions collected from politicians, business people as well as high government officials. With high rate of unemployment in backward states there is no dearth in recruit.
That Mossad has been engaged by the government for training in modern techniques to deal with the insurgency was revealed by Arundhati Roy, international prize winning writer and sympathizer to the cause of the Maoist movement. In her lengthy article 'Walking with the Comrades' published in the Delhi-based weekly Outlook, Roy has given a vivid picture of life and living of tribal and dalit people in the backward areas of Jharkhand, atrocities of security forces, rise of Maoist guerrilla force with about 45 percent women cadres. "Police come whenever they need women or chickens," a women guerrilla cadre told her during her visit to the area in the middle of March.
Across the Indravati River in Jharkhand, the area controlled by the Maoists, "is the place police call Pakistan," she wrote.
The Deccan Chronicle in a February 24 editorial conceded that the Maoist insurgency is centred in areas that are India's wealthiest mineral belt which is being eyed by the government and by foreign and Indian mining interests. Tribal people are driven out of their homes so that the government can go ahead with its industrialization programme.
Arundhati Roy and a host of intellectuals, human rights organizations and even politicians are opposed to Operation Green Hunt. They say paramilitary troops and elite forces like COBRA are killing innocent tribal people in the name of Maoists who are not easy to reach. The sympathizers view that workers and toilers must oppose the state's counterinsurgency war against the Maoists. Operation Green Hunt is directed at upholding and intensifying the oppression of the tribal peoples. Moreover, the Indian ruling elite is using the purported threat of Maoist "terrorism" to justify the state repression of all manner of political movements.
Varvara Rao, well known human rights activist, said security forces claim of encounters with Maoist are fake. Activists of the peoples committees in tribal areas are arrested and shot dead. Asit Mahato, leader of the people's resistance committee in West Midnapore, West Bengal, said people have fled homes in the face of arrest, rape and harassment by the joint forces in the name of search for Maoist. Sixty-five year old Gouranga was beaten to death on March 28 and the body was thrown into the canal. Police plead ignorance when enquired about the missing villagers.
Kabir Sumon, Trinamool Congress MP from West Bengal, resigned from the party and Lok Sava on March 29, ostensibly protesting Operation Green Hunt. He said Trinamool slogan 'Ma, Mati O Manush' has proved fake. They failed to take stand by the Peoples Committee when its president Tudu was shot dead by the joint forces.
The biggest anti-maoist operation was carried out on March 25 in West Midnapore district. Joint forces admitted they fired about 3000 gunshots and barrages of mortar shells during the 12-hour operation. As lessons given by the Mossad, joint forces targeted the Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenjee, who is reportedly received bullet in shoulder and leg, his comrades have taken him to hideouts in adjacent jungles of Jharkhand. Kishenjee who had declared to occupy Calcutta by 2012 last month offered unconditional talks with New Delhi, which was supported by a section of intellectuals and human right organizations. But the government refused to talk until the Maoists abjure violence.
The reaction to Midnapore operation was sharp. "We will reply each bullet that hit Kishenjee and comrade Bikram," said an e-mail to Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa with threat of blowing up his home and installations of government and security forces in the state. Police investigation showed the e-mail had its server far away in Czech Republic.
It is about two months the anti-maoist operation has been launched. The government has claimed arrest of a number of Maoist leaders, destroy some of their hideouts, reclaim few areas from Maoist control but the security forces are yet to make any significant dent in the Maoist movement.
