दर्बा हत्याकांड को मिला अंतिम न्याय: 10 माओवादी को मौत की सजा

Closure to a Maoist Horror

On the road to Sukma, just beyond Darbha, lies a series of hairpin bends along a hilly terrain. At one such bend is a ramshackle memorial to Mahendra Karma—the “Tiger of Bastar”—and 26 other individuals who were killed by Maoists in an infamous operation on May 25, 2013. That grisly chapter in India’s encounter with Maoism ended on September 16 with a judge in Jagdalpur sentencing to death 10 Maoists convicted for that crime.

Maoism as an idea and as a terrorist practice was on its last vestiges in recent years. Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s deadline of March 31 this year has also been met in substance. The judicial verdict on September 16 provides a symbolic closure to the victims of these crimes.

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The 10 individuals who were sentenced to death were foot soldiers of the Maoists. Of the three senior Maoist leaders, the masterminds of the Darbha Valley massacre, one, Ganesh Uikey a Central Committee member of the CPI(Maoist)—was killed in Kandhamal, Odisha on December 25 last year. The other two, Thippiri Tirupathi, the last general secretary of the CPI (Maoist) and Barse Deva, a senior commander, were not convicted/sentenced as they had surrendered after the severe attrition in Maoists ranks.

This “non-conviction” of the two surviving planners of the massacre has led to controversy. There is no need for that. The overarching goal was to end the Maoist insurgency. At the tactical level, this required a mix of coercion and weaning away of individuals from Maoist ranks. It is worth noting that most senior commanders surrendered only after the tide had turned and realised that they would face certain death in case they continued to wage war against India. The surrender of these senior commanders and leaders broke the back of Maoism and any remaining morale in their ranks evaporated. It is against that yardstick that all actions—surrenders, convictions, and the decimation of Maoist ranks—taken by the government ought to be evaluated. Some artificial notion of justice is a misfit in the long-running campaign against one of the most serious internal security threats faced by the country.

The way Karma and other senior leaders of Congress were killed should be remembered by all peace-loving people in India. The Maoists had, at various times, indulged in alleged “peace-talks” with the government. In this tactic, they had many influential supporters in India’s “civil society”. However, their intention was not peace but a tactical respite, as and when it became necessary. The security forces and India’s internal security planners knew this very well. But by 2013, the lazy political consensus was that “talks” were the only way to end the problem. India’s intellectuals and key members of the political establishment waxed eloquent about “justice” and “development” while the Maoists were clear about their goal: the overthrow of the Indian state.

Individuals like Karma, or anyone else who sought to counter the Maoists, were declared “class enemies” and met a grim fate. On that fateful day in May 2013, the Maoists searched everywhere across the Bastar division for Karma. In the hills and valleys around Darbha and the nearby areas of Odisha, there was a huge presence of Maoists. Even as far away as Bijapur in the southernmost part of Chhattisgarh, Maoists were stopping vehicles at random and questioning passengers if Karma was with them.

In Darbha Valley when the convoy of Congress party leaders reached the point where they were massacred, their convoy of vehicles was blocked in the rear by a truck parked diagonally on the highway. This was towards that part of the road that led to Sukma. On the front of the road, towards the hamlet of Darbha, Maoists were physically patrolling the area. In that trapped portion of the highway, Karma was dragged from his vehicle along with Nand Kumar Patel, the Congress party chief of the Chhattisgarh unit. Karma was killed in a gory fashion, the details of which are not worth printing. Patel, a respected leader, was killed along with his son Dinesh. Vidyacharan Shukla, a veteran Congress leader, too, perished in the attack.

The Maoists were implacable. A senior Congress leader—a well-known Adivasi face of the party—who was part of the convoy, tried to argue with the Maoists to spare Nand Kumar Patel’s life. At one point, the Maoists pointed their guns on this leader and told him to go away if he did not want to die. The alleged “sparing” of this leader’s life has been a source of endless controversy ever since. Again, there is no basis for the controversy, at least in the facts that are available. There is no reason to indulge in conspiracy theories.

Bastar, one of India’s most densely forested and least populated areas, was imagined as “India’s Yan’an.” This was a direct lift from the Mao’s theory of war and the actual strategy practised by him. But India’s Maoists did not pause and ponder if the revolutionary strategy that worked in China could even be transplanted to India? The results obviously led to failure. “India’s Yan’an” offered refuge so long that it did not have any roads and infrastructure to transport security forces. Once roads were built, Maoism ended in less than a decade.

Similarly, there are lessons for government, irrespective of the party in power: not building infrastructure and leaving a political vacuum in any part of the country is like playing with fire. In any such vacuum, it is natural that forces inimical to the country will try and establish themselves. It is naïve to think that this possibility does not exist.

The final lesson, even if it is not appreciated, is real nonetheless: letting “civil society” stretch the boundaries of acceptable politics is fatal for India’s unity and integrity. The sooner this is understood, the better it will be for everyone. At least that way countless lives—of innocent Indians and the security forces that guard them—will be saved from the fires of separatism and secessionism.

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