Hostage Orissa

Nearly 10 days after the Italians were picked up,Jhina Hikaka,a tribal MLA from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD),was abducted near Laxmipur in Koraput district by a group of 100 Maoists,a few kilometres away from a Border Security Force camp. And a day before that,Naxals shot dead Krushna Chandra Rath,the sub-inspector of Malkangiri’s Mudulipada police station.

Violent Replay

In a replay of last year’s abduction of Malkangiri district collector Vineel Krishna and a junior engineer,Naxals seem to have successfully held Orissa hostage yet again. Senior police officers may call Panda’s abduction of the Italians a desperate measure by a man trying to rise above the Telugu domination in his party,but they agree he has managed to bring the state to its knees.

It’s the abduction of ruling party MLA Jhina Hikaka that has caused an uproar in the Orissa Assembly,with the Opposition alleging that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik values politics more than the fight against Naxals. They allege that while his own police fights the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh (CMAS),a frontal organisation of Maoists in Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon blocks of Koraput,the CMAS remains an invaluable ally for the BJD.

This month,with both the Congress and the BJD tied at 14 seats in the 29-member Koraput Zilla Parishad,CMAS-backed Independent candidate Zuro Mouka,who was acquitted in a case of Maoist violence last year,lent her crucial support to the BJD.

In fact,Hikaka,along with four other party MLAs of Koraput,had appealed to the chief minister to withdraw cases against CMAS activists and stop Operation Greenhunt in Narayanpatna block. Now his party’s soft stance on the CMAS has come to haunt the BJD. So while Naveen Patnaik told the state Assembly on Wednesday that his government was committed to fight Naxals,the state police force seemed to be desperately searching for some leadership in these tough times.

The recent abductions came when the security forces had gained some amount of control over the Maoists. Last year,there were important successes with the Koraput police arresting Chenda Bhusanam alias Ghasi,an important leader of the Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC). Police also arrested Prashant,the second-in-command in the Maoist hierarchy controlling the Saranda forest in Jharkhand,and Girish Mahato,who had been assigned the task of reviving the organisation in the western Orissa districts of Sambalpur and Deogarh. On January 26 this year,police killed Chitrakam Reddy alias Sitru,an ‘area commander’ for Bandhugaon in Koraput district. Duna Kesava Rao alias Azad,deputy to Sabyasachi Panda,surrendered in Hyderabad on May 2011.

The anti-Maoist intelligence wing now has better actionable intelligence about Kandhamal,which was what led to Panda’s force strength coming down to 70 from 160 a few years ago. Narayanpatna block was brought under state control a year ago,with effective combing coupled with precision strikes on Maoist camps.

Despite being a late starter in its fight against Maoists,Orissa has not done all that badly over the last five years with its dedicated anti-Maoist force—the Special Operations Group (SOG) that has under-35 policemen who are trained in jungle warfare. Apart from that,there are eight battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force,five battalions of Border Security Force and a battalion of COBRA stationed in Koraput,Malkangiri,Rayagada,Kandhamal and Keonjhar.

But beyond this,there is little to celebrate. Sources in the state police department say the force is utterly demoralised with vacancies crippling it. Of the sanctioned strength of 65,000,Orissa has 10,000-12,000 vacancies. The sub-inspectors,who form the bulk of the force,are 50 per cent short of the sanctioned strength as the government stopped direct recruitment of sub-inspectors between 2000 and 2004. The anti-Maoist special force of SOG has about one-third of the 3,500 sanctioned posts still lying vacant. The only chopper that was brought in for anti-Maoist operations recently has hardly been used as it remains stationed in Bhubaneswar and is used for ferrying top cops to Maoist-affected districts. “When our forces are injured in an operation,how do we evacuate them? By road? That would be suicidal as we know the rebels have planted landmines and IEDs. Why can’t a chopper be placed in Koraput which can be used for such evacuation exercises,” asks a senior official of a central paramilitary force.

The systemic malfunction is nowhere more evident than in the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on Orissa’s police modernisation between 2004 and 2011. “Weapons numbering 10,594…including 5,596 modern weapons such as INSAS rifles,AK-47 rifles and light machine guns…were rotting at the State Provincial Store in Cuttack unissued as the required number of trained staff were not there,” the CAG said.

The problems don’t end there. The performance of the BSF,which was brought in three years ago for its experience in jungle combat,has been a disappointment. “The BSF jawans won’t go on combing operation for more than 7-8 km from their base camp and can’t do operations for more than 17-18 hours at a stretch. Barring the Podapadar gram panchayat in Narayanpatna block,all their camps are on the main road. How will they strike fear in the hearts of Maoists?” asks a senior police official.

BSF DIG S K Barua accepts that his force has not killed any Naxal in the last three years but puts it down to a staff crunch. “We can’t leave the roads as we have to keep the communication lines open. We also have to follow the Standard Operating Procedures and come back to our base camp,” says Barua.

Forces of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA),stationed in Semiliguda area of Koraput,haven’t performed any better either. Sources in Orissa police say the COBRA is yet to conduct a single operation on its own in the state.

Meanwhile,jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force,after a not-so-encouraging start a few years ago,are now considered the best bet in the battle against the Naxals. “After Vijay Kumar joined as DG of CRPF,the force has been on the move. Over the last year,we have been seeing CRPF jawans doing combing operation for 4-5 days at a stretch,venturing deep inside enemy territory,” says a source in the Orissa police.

Poor leadership

While the CRPF has turned around with a new DG at the helm,sources say the same can’t be said about the state police where there is an iron curtain between the DG and his forces fighting the Maoists. While Naveen Patnaik,who is in charge of the home department,has no direct channel of communication with his IGs,DIGs,and SPs,the DGP too has little or no communication with SPs in Maoist-affected districts.

“In Andhra Pradesh,it is de rigeur for a DG to have direct communication with his SP,” says an SP in a Naxal-affected district. In fact,more than Orissa’s top bosses,it is the Andhra Pradesh police who are in touch with the Orissa police in Koraput and Malkangiri and who share information about the movement of Maoists. While there is excellent coordination with the Andhra Pradesh police,the coordination is worst with the Chhattisgarh police and that has resulted in increased Maoist activities in Nuapada,Nabarangpur and Bolangir districts during the last two years.

The Unified Command chaired by the Chief Secretary,which decides the basic framework of the anti-Maoist fight,has also become another meaningless exercise as the SPs are hardly consulted about their problems.

The training given to SOG personnel at Chandaka near Bhubaneswar has little in common with actual field conditions of Maoist areas such as Koraput,Malkangiri or Rayagada.

The government’s lack of seriousness in fighting the Maoists is also evident from the fact that it took two years to announce a new surrender policy for Maoists. The 2006 policy failed to get any major response with only 120 Maoists surrendering. The current policy,which was finally published as a resolution,has been lying with the CM since 2010. Under the new scheme,the government plans to give Rs 2.5 lakh and land to surrendered Maoists.

Little development

While the state government’s stated goal has been to bring development to Naxal-hit areas,there has been little progress on the ground. In Malkangiri,there are more than 500 official vacancies—the post of district social welfare officer,chief district medical officer,four posts of deputy collectors and 19 specialist doctors lie vacant. “My biggest problem in Malkangiri is the lack of nationalised banks through which I can pay the NREGS workers. Here telecommunication lines are the worst with places like Chitrakonda block remaining out of touch for months together,” says Malkangiri district collector Balwant Singh.

In Narayanpatna,where the state forces are engaged in a see-saw battle with Maoists and their frontal organisation CMAS for the last three years,development is conspicuously absent. The roads are in a dismal state and the public health system lies in ruins.

Having tasted blood after the Malkangiri collector’s abduction,the Maoists seem to be in no mood to relent while the state police continue to grope in the dark about the whereabouts of MLA Jhina Hikaka and Italian tourist Paulo Bosusco.

Ajai Sahni of the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management debunks the police theory that the abduction is evidence of Maoists’ desperation. “In Orissa,neither the political parties nor the police are up to it when it comes to fighting the Maoists,” says Sahni.

Opposition Congress leader Prasad Harichandan,who was once Orissa’s minister of state for home,says the abductions show how the state has knelt down before the Maoists. “On the one hand you describe CMAS as a frontal organisation of Maoists,but at the same time you sign an MoU with them for retaining power. When you play with fire,it can burn you badly.”