The third wave of the Naxalite movement in the country has apparently come to an end with the death of their one of the top ranking leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji.
Yesterday he was killed in encounter with the CRPF jawans in a patch of forest near Jhargram, West Midnapore. The joint force of CRPF and state armed police are conducting combing operation in three districts of Junglemahal to nab or eliminate his close associates.
Suchitra Mahato, a close associate of Kishenji and herself a member of their armed units, is believed to be wounded in yesterday’s encounter and the joint force is conducting combing operation to apprehend her. The chief minister Mamata Banerjee has given specific instruction to the DG of state police to spare her life and try to take her in custody. Separate detachments of CRPF jawans have begun looking for other Naxalite squads led by Akash, Bikash, Madan Mahato and Bikram. Of them Bikram’s unit operates in Purulia district, while the others are active in West Midnapore. A senior police official, who does not want to be identified, said that they had successfully sealed their exit routes to neighboring Jharkhand state and hope to “finish off the remnants” within the next few days.
According to intelligence sources, the crucial tip off regarding Kishenji’s presence in West Midnapore came from the local people close to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TC) party. It was learnt that the Naxalite leader had convened a meeting of their state committee members there. Accordingly, they started assembling there. After yesterday’s successful operation the CRPF jawan recovered today some letters and other documents from the forest which indicated that the Naxalites were under tremendous pressure as they were finding it increasingly difficult to continue operating in Junglemahal.
Those who have previous experience of meeting the Naxalite leaders, who are on the run now, feel that “they are all men of actions” bereft of any politico-ideological mooring. Unlike Kishenji, they lack in education and organizing skill. So, even if they survive the police dragnet, it will be really difficult for them to rebuild the organization.
Already there were signs of the movement losing its steam among the tribals in Junglemahal. The state government’s recent bid to recruit 10,000 youth from Junglemahal to police and home guards was received with tremendous response defying the warning issued by the Naxalites there. In West Medinipore alone more than 44,000 applied for the police jobs. There was ample proof that the Naxalites were steadily losing ground there.
According to sources close to the chief minister, the Centre is extremely happy with the recent development and that message has been conveyed to her. With the Junglemahal now virtually out of their control, the Naxalites will have little maneuverability in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, feels the central government. A good number of the central leaders of CPI (Maoist) are either dead or behind the bar. Kobad Gandhi, Narayan Sanyal, Amitabha Bagchi and Sushil Roy, all member of their central committee are languishing in various prisons. Azad has been killed in encounter. Though Ganapati, their topmost leader is still in underground, so are Prashanta Bose alias Kissan, Venugopal and Sudarshan, they are no substitute for Kishenji. In 1972, with the death of Charu Majumdar in police custody, the first wave of the Naxalite movement died out. The second wave was spearheaded by Vinod Mishra led CPI ML (Liberation), but in the late 1980s they joined the parliamentary politics.
The third wave got momentum when the Peoples’ War Group (PWG) came under attack by the Andhra Pradesh government in 2004 and merged with the Maoist Communist Centre of Bihar to form the CPI (Maoist). Earlier they had to retreat from Andhra Pradesh and relocate their headquarters to Chhattisgarh’s Bastar. Kishenji, their leader of the military wing, took initiative to spread the organization in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
But as the coordinated operations by the central and state police in these states gradually started gaining ground the Naxalites were pushed to the corners.
The death of Kishenji in a forest near Jhargram indicates that they had little space to fall back upon to evade the police dragnet. Sandhi Mukherjee, a retired IPS and former IG (IB), observed that the present movement had lost its steam and die soon.
But now the government will have to make serious efforts to improve the lots of the tribals in all these Naxalite influenced districts in the states. Otherwise, the problem might raise its head in coming days again.
