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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Red Romance

For long, the Naxalite in news was recognisable by the gun. But the more insidious version of Naxalism has never needed a rifle. It has thrived in varsity classrooms and newspaper and magazine columns, fostered by men and women sympathetic to it. These academics and other members of the so-called intelligentsia have long enjoyed their status as ‘respectable dissenters’ even when their politics offered intellectual alibis for Naxals carrying guns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent...

Red Romance

For long, the Naxalite in news was recognisable by the gun. But the more insidious version of Naxalism has never needed a rifle. It has thrived in varsity classrooms and newspaper and magazine columns, fostered by men and women sympathetic to it. These academics and other members of the so-called intelligentsia have long enjoyed their status as ‘respectable dissenters’ even when their politics offered intellectual alibis for Naxals carrying guns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent Independence Day warning about “dimaagi Naxals” should therefore not be dismissed as another political label. His larger point was that an insurgency does not survive on ammunition alone. It survives on ideas and people willing to make violence appear morally fashionable. The most revealing feature of India’s Maoist movement was never simply its brutality. It was the strange attraction it exercised over sections of the metropolitan Left elite. The Naxalite with an AK-47 could be transformed into a romantic revolutionary while the policeman he killed became an instrument of an oppressive state. This was not merely naïveté. At its ugliest, it was the intellectual laundering of political violence. The fantasy of the romantic revolutionary has always been seductive. In this narrative, amplified through sympathetic media priding itself on telling ‘truth to power,’ India was not a constitutional democracy struggling with inequality and corruption but an inherently illegitimate state waiting to be overthrown. In the minds of this elite Left, Maoist violence has often been recast as resistance while attacks on infrastructure as blows against capitalism. The armed overthrow of the Indian republic was the liberation they craved for. Some of India’s most celebrated intellectuals have flirted dangerously close to that moral inversion. The issue here is whether intellectual prestige can be used to sanitise an ideology whose practitioners have murdered civilians, policemen and public servants and terrorised some of India’s poorest districts. A university cannot be the place where Maoist romanticism acquires the legitimacy of a fashionable campus cause. Professors who turn armed insurgents into heroic revolutionaries are not merely exercising academic freedom. If they knowingly excuse violence, they are helping to construct the moral vocabulary that makes violence possible. Let’s be clear here. A professor who criticises the Indian state is not a Naxal while a journalist who exposes state excesses is not an enemy of India. But an intellectual who repeatedly excuses, glorifies or rationalises political violence cannot hide behind the word ‘dissent.’ India has paid an enormous price for the Maoist fantasy. Thousands have died. Entire regions were held back by fear while development was obstructed. The people supposedly being liberated were often the first to suffer. The armed Naxal is now being pushed towards extinction. But the Indian republic cannot afford to leave behind the romantic mythology that made the gun respectable. A democracy can tolerate dissent. It should never be expected to tolerate the glorification of those who seek its violent destruction.

Six Maoists surrender

Gadchiroli: In a major development, six hardcore senior Maoists, including three women, carrying a combined bounty of Rs 62-lakhs, laid down arms before the Director-General of Police (DGP) Rashmi Shukla, said Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police Neelotpal.


DGP Shukla, along with Additional DGP (Special Operations) Chhering Dorje visited the Maoist-infested Gadchiroli today when the 6 dreaded rebels decided to join the national mainstream.


Appearing impressive in the special ‘camouflage uniform’ of the Gadchiroli Police – DGP Shukla seemed relaxed and smiled as she posed for photos with the 6 Maoists who were presented a copy of the Indian Constitution.


The Reds who surrendered are identified as: Sukhlal Kulmethe, 58, DVCM North Bastar Mass Team, and Shankarakka Vistarayya Sadmek, 56, Maad Division, DK Press Team Incharge – both carrying a bounty of Rs 16-lakhs each on their heads. Post-surrender they will get Rs. 8.50 lakhs assistance each as part of the state government’s rehab package.


The others are: Shanti Mangaru Majji, 34, Commander, West Bureau Tailor Team; Aytal Guddi Madavi, 39, PPCM, Company 10 of Bijapur in Chhattisgarh; Sameer Ayatu Potam, 24, PPCM, South Bureau Technical Team and also from Bijapur. Each carried a reward of Rs 8-Lakhs, and post surrender will receive between Rs. 4.50-Rs. 5.50 lakhs for their rehab.


The last is Surekha Chaitu Madavi, 28, ACM of Aheri LOS, who was wanted with a bounty of Rs. 6-Lakh and will be entitled to Rs. 4.50 lakhs rehab aid. All the 6 were wanted for several heinous crimes including murder, encounters, arson, ambushes, terrorising the locals, etc.


Among these, the two married couples – Kulmethe-Sadmek alias Vimalakka and Madavi-Majji alias Kavita – shall be entitled to an additional Rs 1.50 lakhs each, while a collective Group Surrender award of Rs 4-lakhs shall also be provided to the six who gave up violence.


Since the launch of the rehab policy in 2005, 716 active Maoists have surrendered in Gadchiroli, significantly weakening the banned CPI (Maoist). The year 2025 began on a positive note when 11 hardcore Maoists surrendered on New Year Day," SP Neelotpal told ‘The Perfect Voice’.


Later, on June 6, 12 more Maoists laid down arms before Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and today 6 gave up violence before the DGP, he said.


Acknowledging the efforts of the Gadchiroli Police and its elite Commandos, DGP Shukla felicitated C-60 jawans with commendation certificates, while M. Ramesh, IPS (Addl. SP, Operations, who led the Kawande Forest encounter), and Satya Sai Karthik, (Addl. SP Aheri, who led the Modaske jungle gun-battle), were specially honoured.


She also handed over cheques of Rs 5-Lakhs each to the families of Raoji Chinna Atram (Kapewancha) and Sukhram Mahagu Madavi (Kiyer), who were brutally murdered by Maoists on suspicion of being police informers, said Neelotpal.


Top officers who joined the DGP included: Neelotpal, Chhering Dorje, Sandip Patil (Spl. IGP, ANO, Nagpur), Ajai Kumar Sharma (DIG Ops., CRPF), M. Ramesh (Addl. SP Ops.), Satya Sai Karthik (Addl. SP Aheri), Gokul Raj G. (Addl. SP Admn.), Sumit Verma (DC Int., CRPF), Aniket Hirde (ASP Dhanora), and Vishal Nagargoje (Dy.SP Ops.), besides Officers and jawans from C-60, PHQ, and other branches.


Neelotpal added that due to intensified operations and attractive rehabilitation measures, 73 hardcore Maoists have surrendered in Gadchiroli since 2022, including 40 in 2025 alone – the highest in the past four years – and marks decisive steps in weakening the Maoist movement while restoring peace in the region.

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