|
Naxal Leadership Crisis
The
leadership crisis faced by the CPI Maoists is evident with the 39-member
central committee come down to 24 since 2007. In the last two years, several CC
members, including Kobad Ghandy, Amitabh Bagchi, Pramod Mishra, Susheel Roy,
Ashutosh Tudu and Narayan Sanyal, have been arrested or killed. A breakdown of
arrests and deaths during the Year 2010 is as per Table below. West Bengal has
had singular success in the last eight months, there have been eight encounters
in Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia in which at least 22 bodies of Maoists
have been recovered. Union home secretary G K Pillai said, "The West
Bengal Maoist unit is more or less decimated. Across the country, too, they are
facing a steady attrition rate." This is however a gross exaggeration as
the guerrillas continues to hold sway over large territory in the Jungle Mahal
area in the three western districts of the State.
|
February - Balraj and Chintan, two CC members arrested in Uttar Pradesh along
with 10 other leaders.
|
|
March - Telegu Deepak, head of Maoists' military commission in West Bengal,
was arrested by state CID. Kishenji, a Maoist Central Committee member, has
gone quiet after an encounter in West Bengal. Shakamuri Appa Rao, chief of
the Maoist military intelligence, killed in Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam
district.
|
|
July Maoist spokesperson and CC member Azad was killed in an encounter in
the state's Adilabad forests.
|
|
December West Bengal state committee secretary Sudip Chongdar alias Kanchan,
state committee members Anil Ghosh alias Ajay, Barun Sur alias Bidyut and
Kalpana Maity alias Anu. Bimal Mallick aka Shankar.
|
Maoist
general secretary Ganapathy admitted losses to leadership, "After
completion of our party Congress, a considerable number of our CC members were
caught by the enemy and were either killed in fake encounters or put in jails.
This is the very big hindrance we are facing in achieving our goals. No doubt,
this would have a grave impact on the Indian revolution. Leaders in a guerrilla
organisation rise through the ranks. Their commitment to ideology and acumen in
various spheres — political, military — and organizational skills are tested
before they are inducted in state or central committees”.
The success of security forces in West Bengal to
knock off a large number of Maoist leadership has been a combination of good
policing, intelligence and political support to operations. State intelligence
has been able to identify safe houses of the guerrillas and thus following the
leads could home on to the leadership. Operations in West Medinapur district of
the state where the Maoists had established a strong hold were launched with
the help of Left Party cadres who came into play given that the state elections
are now in the offing. This has also helped West Bengal ruling communist party
to reestablish hold over the area and resulted in spat between the Home
Minister and the West Bengal Chief Minister as indicated in succeeding
paragraphs.
|
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb