No doubt, the arrest of top Maoist Sabyasachi Panda is a morale booster for the police and a big jolt for the leftwing extremism in Odisha, but it would be too credulous to accept that the breakthrough would end the menace in the State.
The Maoist movement has taken a serious dimension in the tribal belts of the State and involves cadres not just from Odisha but predominantly from the bordering States such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. The cross-border extremism is sponsored by several agencies and even from abroad. The movement is flourishing because of sound logistic and financial support from outside India.
However, what makes the Maoist cadres acceptable to the local tribals is their sustained effort at wooing them through exploiting the backwardness of their region, their innocence and poverty and a vigorous anti-establishment campaign. When persuasions and allurements fail, they do not hesitate to apply a tactic of intimidation as well.
The multi-prong nature of attracting State’s poverty-stricken tribals into the Maoist fold makes it difficult for the Government to prevent the spread of the Ultra tentacles and wean the innocent population away from their desperate move. This is the reason why equal emphasis is laid both on strengthening the anti-insurgency operations and socio-economic development of the backward, tribal prone belts.
Despite the spread of the Maoist stranglehold in the State, it is a fact to be acknowledged that the forces too have achieved remarkable success in containing their attacks to a great extent over the last few years. The biggest advantage for the forces has been that the Maoists’ house is not in order these days. There has been growth of inward rivalries, dissention and mushroom growth of splinter groups among the Maoists. Besides, sexual and physical exploitation of the women cadres, growing disenchantment among the tribals due to the harassment at the hands of the rebels, dilution of the principles and ideology of the movement and goondaism have weakened the Maoists.
Panda is a glowing example of how he had been sidelined by the mainstream CPI Maoists as a result of which he had to form his own outfit Odisha Maobadi Party to stay put. Even Panda’s operation had been largely decimated to a few districts in the southern Odisha. He was also drying up so far as fund was concerned. For the last couple of years, Panda was only trying to flee from the dragnet of the forces as the latter were determined to nab him and were closing in on him on several occasions and even had bloody battles with him and his cadres. Except a few skirmishes, the Maoists have not orchestrated any loot as big as that in the Nayagarh armoury or a murder as heinous as that of the laxmanananda Saraswati. With the stepping up of operations against them, they have been greatly neutralized.
All the same, guerilla warfare as their strategy is, they have not abandoned the exercise of recruiting cadres and strengthening their base secretly. As such, the administration, police and forces, by no account, should be complacent. They need to augment vigilantism and be ready to meet situation.