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Responding to intense operations by security forces in Chhattisgarh, Naxalites operating under the aegis of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), as part of a new strategy, have decided to spread their wings across the country rather than restricting themselves to a particular region as has been their mode of operation for decades.

The coordinated and relentless operations by security forces in the ‘naxal belt’ that cuts across several eastern states and finally the taking down of CPI (Maoist) general secretary, Nambala Keshava Rao, also known by his nom de guerre Basavaraju, in a gunfight on May 21 this year, have driven out the Maoists from their traditional bastions including the Abujhmarh area of Chhattisgarh.

Call to decentralise, fan out

Besides Basavaraju, three members of the outfit’s central committee and 16 members of state committees have also been killed by security forces over the past year. The party’s call to members to fan out across the country rather than confining themselves to specific areas comes in the wake of these setbacks.

Read our 5-part Battle for Bastar series here

A latest document released by the banned outfit gives pointers to leaders and cadres about its new line of operation to survive the onslaught of security forces.

“We must work in wide areas, not confining to small areas; we must be decentralised; class struggle must be made in coordination of legal-illegal, open-secret forms of struggle and organisation; we must mobilise the people of four classes of the urban, plain, and forest areas in the revolutionary movement,” the document says.

The evidence of their plan to spread across the country and revive the party organisation in areas such as Haryana was revealed when the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on July 29 arrested Priyanshu Kashyap, a native of Bastar in Chhattisgarh who was living in Rohtak district of Haryana.

How NIA cracked ‘revival’ plan

Kashyap was an area committee in-charge of the outfit in Rohtak and was involved in efforts to revive Maoism in the Northern Regional Bureau (NRB), which comprises Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Before Kashyap, the NIA had earlier arrested Ajay Singhal alias Aman, who was said to be in charge of the State Organising Committee (SOC) for Haryana and Punjab.

Initial probe revealed that the funds for revival were coming from the Eastern Regional Bureau of the CPI (Maoist), especially from Jharkhand.

Noting that “nearly 357 comrades became martyrs” in the past year, the Maoist document said guerrilla war was flexible.

“It goes as per the tactics like ‘breeze’ and ‘flowing water’. The meaning of “being like breeze” is to be in constant mobility instead of staying in one place. The meaning of “flowing like water” is to not climb the hills that come in its way, not to fight decisive wars with the enemy that is many times stronger like water flowing from slopes but to implement tactics to save its strength,” the document said.

Also read: Maoist resurgence efforts raise concerns in West Bengal

Say no to defeat, surrender: document

The Maoist document also speaks about rejecting surrender packages, wherein members are offered compensation to rehabilitate and go back to society in some cases if they lay down arms, by states affected by Naxalism. Following the onslaught of security forces, many Maoists are finding these surrender packages attractive.

“We need to be prepared to sacrifice our life in the interests of the people. We must reject the surrender-rehabilitation plans being announced by the enemy. We must not fall in the influence of the deceptive psychological war of the enemy. We must widely propagate the ideals of the martyrs among the people in the urban, plain, and forest areas and in the entire revolutionary camp and mobilise the new generation into the revolutionary movement,” said the document.

The document also calls the recent losses temporary and urges cadres not to lose confidence and “avoid surrender and betrayal”.

Rudderless movement: police

But officials involved in the anti-Naxal drive say Maoists are trapped in a time warp and their so-called movement has become rudderless. They are hardly getting new recruits as the causes that attracted people to Maoism no longer exist.

Also read: Three Maoists killed in encounter in Gumla, Jharkhand

“In the central India theatre, armed and banned parties were being spearheaded by insurgents of undivided Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Tribals in large numbers used to supply them with recruits, food, shelter, and intelligence in lieu of keeping the organs of state away from large swathes of territory. As there are hardly any specific and pressing causes available to them to carry on, only the dream of a communist utopia is what they are chasing. It’s a mirage and so has become this movement. They are trapped in a time warp, and are rudderless, brutal, and sinister like an organised crime syndicate. Many overground left mass organisations support them as their comrades but the Indian society has moved on and moved away from their street play,” said Pankaj Srivastava, Special Director General of Police (Anti-Naxal Operations) in Madhya Pradesh.