Leadership decapitation plunges Maoism into a deeper crisis

The Maoists face leadership decapitation amid heightened counter-insurgency operations

On September 20, Maoist leader Kotta Ramachandra Reddy, alias Vikalp, co-signed a statement denouncing Politburo member Mallojula Venugopal Rao (Sonu)’s open letter for “temporarily abandoning the armed struggle”. The statement, which accused Sonu of conspiring to break the party, reached the media after Vikalp was killed along with a fellow Maoist central committee member, Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy, in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur on September 22.

The scene of an anti-Maoist operation. (HT PHOTO/File)

The statement signalled a deepening crisis within the Maoist ranks, even as it maintained that the Maoists had chosen the path of protracted people’s war. The outlawed organisation faces leadership decapitation amid heightened counter-insurgency operations in line with the Union government’s target of eliminating Maoism from the country by next year.

Between January 1 and September 22, security forces have killed Maoist leaders in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. The killing of Maoist chief Nambala Kesava Rao, alias Basavaraju, on May 20 marked the most significant success against the Left-wing insurgency in years. Basvaraju was the backbone of the insurgency in central India. He was accused of masterminding attacks, including an ambush that left 76 security personnel dead in 2010.

Pothula Padmavathi, alias Sujata, alias Kalpana, the only Maoist woman member in the top leadership, surrendered in Telangana on September 13. Officials say the loss of senior leaders has left the Maoists weakened, organisationally and ideologically, as they struggle to fill the leadership vacuum.

Sonu, the brother of Maoist leader Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji, who was killed in West Bengal in November 2011, was believed to have been the front-runner to replace Basavaraju. The virtual exit of Sonu, a native of Telangana’s Peddapalli district, and the killing of two top Maoists on September 22, left Maoists with just three Politburo and six central committee members.

Former central committee member Jinugu Narasimha Reddy, alias Jampanna, said it is difficult to say that the party is heading for a split, but it is definitely in a sort of severe crisis. “Though there were different views among the leaders within the party in the past, too, they never came out in public,” he said, referring to the September 20 Maoist central committee statement.

The statement signalled defiance, saying the changed international and national circumstances do not mean a retreat from armed struggle. “On the contrary, they prove and show the need to continue the armed struggle. It is necessary to continue the armed struggle by coordinating open and secret, legal and illegal methods of struggle and organisation,” the statement said.

The statement wondered why Sonu, as a Politburo member, did not try to correct the adventurist mistakes, if there were any, by discussing them within the party. “Instead, he has decided to leave this revolutionary path and join the mainstream,” it said.

The statement said laying down arms and engaging in peace talks is against Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the party’s political and organisational line. It denounced Sonu for conspiring to break the party.

The statement said that Sonu wrote the letter in the name of spokesperson Abhay in his personal capacity. “Our central committee, Politburo, and Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee completely reject and strongly condemn it,” said the statement. It added that Sonu had no right to issue the letter.

The statement said Sonu and his companions can surrender to “the enemy” if they wish. It added that they do not have the right to hand over the party’s weapons to “the enemy”. “Therefore, we demand that those weapons be handed over to our party. If they do not hand them over willingly, we have instructed the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army to seize them,” the statement said.

The party criticised Sonu for using the phrase “temporarily abandoning the armed struggle”, calling it nothing but a deception. “He wants to abandon the armed struggle. The path he is adopting will be the parliamentary electoral path. Therefore, this is the new revisionism adopted by Prachanda, the traitor of the Nepali revolution,” it said, referring to the two-time former Nepalese Prime Minister, who headed the Maoist insurgency before the end of the monarchy and establishment of a democratic republic.

The statement described Sonu’s idea of seeking opinions from party members, committees, workers, and imprisoned leaders, on laying down arms, an evil plan to break the party. “We demand Sonu to abandon this evil plan,” it said.

The Maoist movement, which has been described as the biggest threat to India’s internal security, has suffered setbacks but retained the capacity to launch attacks, almost half a century after it began in West Bengal’s Naxalbari in 1967 and spread to what is now Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra.