Maoists aiming to overthrow state by 2050: Centre

Vinay Kumar

The Union government on Friday said the objective of the Maoists engaged in an armed ‘liberation struggle' was to overthrow the Indian state by 2050, as indicated by documents seized from them.

Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said that an in-depth analysis of Maoist operations also pointed to assistance by former Army men.

Speaking at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis here, Mr. Pillai said the Maoists did their homework before launching attacks and their approach was that of a well-trained army — surveying the place, making notes and studying every aspect.

“After every attack, they do a post-mortem and analysis. The analysis is as good as any that the armed forces of any country do,” he said. Mr. Pillai said as many as 908 people lost their lives last year — the highest since 1971 — in naxal violence. “It is quite likely that the violence will go up in 2010 or 2011 before the tide begins to turn,” he added.

‘No reverses'
The Home Secretary said that even though the joint anti-naxal operations were going on, the rebels had not suffered any significant reverses, and that the government would need seven to eight years to have full control over the areas lost to the Maoists.

“The operations have not hit even five per cent of hardcore militants. The real armed cadres are yet to come out,” he said. According to him, they would not come for talks unless they felt the heat and that whatever statements they were making about peace were not serious.

Referring to the offer to halt anti-naxal operations, Mr. Pillai said the left-wing extremists were against allowing any kind of development. “They destroy school buildings, health centres and blast mobile towers.”

The Maoist influence was spread over 34 districts in eight States, he said.

Mr. Pillai said the rebels were looking to regroup and building their own army to implement their plans. He added that if they were willing to hold talks with the government, they should first give up violence.

“Under-development and administrative vacuum at some places are coming in handy for them,” Mr. Pillai said. He stressed the need for training and strengthening the police forces.

Sources in the Home Ministry said that in the nine days following the offer of talks on February 22, there have been 22 acts of violence involving Maoist cadres — seven in Bihar, four in Chhattisgarh, six in Jharkhand, three in West Bengal, and one each in Karnataka and Orissa — in which 12 civilians and two security personnel lost their lives.

‘Stop hostilities'

Meanwhile, the Maoists said a cessation of hostilities by both sides for a specific time-period was the minimum requirement before talks.

“If the rulers think the Maoists are proposing ceasefire from a position of weakness, they are gravely mistaken. It is because the CPI (Maoist) has great concern for the oppressed people that it has proposed a ceasefire that could be of some help to poor Adivasis living in conditions of the worst famine of the decade and brutal state terror,” a statement from Azad, spokesperson of the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist), said