Killing civilians in Bastar

Bastar is once again grappling with bloodshed, a few days before the region goes to the polls which the Maoists have decided to boycott. The difference this time, as opposed to say the Sukma attack just before Lok Sabha polls, is that civilians have been killed in all recent Maoist attacks. The last attack claimed the life of a news cameraperson besides policemen, though the Maoists denied they were targeting the media. Till now the pattern was to exclusively target police patrols, and sometimes, a politician or an alleged police informant.

Questions are being asked about the motive of the recent attacks. Were they because of a change of guard in the CPI (Maoist)? Based on the revelations of a surrendered Maoist, Nambala Keshava Rao, the new chief, is reported to have ordered a more aggressive approach. Or were they part of Maoist’s tactical counter-offensive campaign to get noticed before the elections as well as defend their bailiwick against outside ingress. There are already reports that Maoists have spoken of police-propelled road-building activity as one of the motives for the attack that claimed the life of the cameraperson. If that were so, in classic counter-insurgency terms the resistance to road building takes place around the waning stages of a guerrilla movement.  

This may suggest that the attacks that killed civilians are from a movement that has hit a cul-de-sac. There is already a question mark on the sustainability of such a course against the much better-equipped security forces while the romanticism associated with Maoist movements has given way to demonisation of their violence in mainstream political narrative. Targeting of civilians will push them further into political isolation. The few sparks of electoral successes their adherents manage to register in universities or panchayats elsewhere are too few to cover up for the fact that Maoist geopolitical domination is static or has shrunk. The movement is at a crossroads and the new Maoist chief Keshava Rao needs to take a hard call about the continuation of a violent course of action to achieve egalitarianism in the country.