Opinion Express View on anti-Maoist operation: Chhattisgarh must not lower its guard

Since December 2023, when it assumed office in Chhattisgarh, the Vishnu Deo Sai government has mounted a concerted offensive to neutralise Maoist insurgents. According to the state government’s records, nearly 280 militants have been killed by security forces, more than 1,000 Maoists have been arrested and 925 insurgents have surrendered. In the latest crackdown on Sunday, the security forces targeted a Maoist stronghold inside the Indravati National Park in Bijapur district. Thirty-one insurgents were reportedly killed in the operations, which made use of police camps in the vicinity of the forest. In the past year, the security forces have used these base camps as launchpads for attacks on Maoist strongholds. These have ended the security vacuum in parts of Bastar and restricted the movement of insurgents in their erstwhile strongholds, including their headquarters in Abujhmarh and South Bastar.

The recent operations have been enabled by greater coordination between the security forces from the state and the Centre, including the BSF, CRPF, and ITBP. The fact also is that in the last 15 years or so, left wing extremism has been running out of steam. From being “the greatest internal security threat to our nation” — as the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it in 2009 — Maoism is today restricted to a few pockets in Chhattisgarh and adjoining areas of Maharashtra. The number of Maoist-affected districts has come down from more than 220 in the early 2000s to less than 40, with violence largely being reported from about 20 districts.

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The Maoist movement is no longer much of a force in its erstwhile strongholds in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Bihar. South Chhattisgarh’s geography — a forested area bordering Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana, with poor transport and communication facilities — and the economic deprivation of the people did allow the insurgents to gain some foothold. However, here too, their constant recourse to violence and failure to recognise the strength of democratic institutions worked against the insurgents. In the last five years, the cadre base of the Maoists has shrunk sharply.

Chhattisgarh has been a late entrant in anti-Maoist operations. In the first decade of this century, the state wasted precious time on civilian militias like the Salwa Judum before course correcting to train its police force and reaching out to people with welfare measures. The state government must not lower its guard. But even as it turns on the heat against insurgents, it must take care to ensure that civilians are not in harm’s way. Failure to take such precautions could mean playing into the hands of the Maoists.