HELLO, THIS IS KISHEN, MY MOBILE NO. IS ....

Sometimes you can’t escape from comparisons though comparison, at times, may be odious. According to our mythology, Lord Krishna was quite elusive, despite his mischievous deeds and omnipresence, for those whom he tormented out of love. Our own Telugu bidda, Kishen ji, who claims to fight a dharmic war for the sake of the poor and downtrodden, is accessible to every journalist, talks to everyone at will, travels extensively, but our establishment cannot trace him or pin him down like Sri Krishna for his Gopis. He is at large for the establishment, but he is available to anyone just for a buzz.

Exchange of statements between Maoist leader Kishen and the government, especially the Home Minister sounds as if two sovereign states are talking to each other. First, when Union Home Minster Chidambaram wanted theMaoists to stop violence for 72 hours before there could be any meaningful dialogue, Kishen taunted the Home Minister that he would enforce a ceasefire for 72 days provided the government stopped its offensive. It was just a tit for tat. He knew that the government cannot accept conditional offer for talks and still he wanted to score a point over the government.

When Chidambaram wanted the Maoists to fax their statement direct to him instead of talking through the media and gave them his fax number, Kishen had the audacity to give his mobile number and asked the Home Minister to talk to him over phone. He did not leave a choice for the Minister for the timing. Kishen wanted him to call him on Feb 25 at 5 PM. “Let him (Chidambaram) call me with specific proposals. We are offering the truce in all honesty, disregarding our earlier conditions”, Kishen said with all temerity that he can command.

As a counter to Operation Green Hunt, he threatens to launch Operation Peace Hunt and put the governments of Chattisgargh, Orissa, Jharkand and West Bengal on notice. He also threatened an armed rebellion in the capital city of Kolkatta just before 2011 assembly elections.

Do all these mean that the Maoists are somewhere nearer to their objective of overthrowing a democratically elected government through the barrel of gun? Have they succeeded in establishing their “Red Corridor” without encountering any challenge from the duly elected governments? Are the Maoists talking from a position of strength vis-a-vis state governments?

So far as the West Bengal government is concerned, it is absolutely clear that there is no political will to take on the Maoists. Sildha massacre in West Midnapore district is a classic example for the state government’s complacence despite intelligence inputs, if one has to use Shivraj Patil’s phrase – “actionable intelligence”. There were five attacks on police outposts in West Midnapore district during the last six months killing 32 security personnel. West Midnapore is a stronghold of Maoists and 266 people were killed in the district since 2002 in Left Extremist violence. Of this, 155 persons were killed since June 2009.
Despite the resurgence of Maoist activities since 2004, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya feels and talks like Buddha. He feels ban will not serve the purpose when the problem is a political one. According to observers there is inexplicable reluctance to use force against Maoists. There are also reports that atleast one two occasions, the security forces zeroed in on Kishen and at the last minute they were asked not to rein him in.

Sildha is a recent example for lack of preparedness. When the Maoists ran into the camp, 50 jawans were busy in the kitchen with no arms around. It is not clear whether these jawans were aware of the Standard Operating Procedures. Jawans were poorly trained and there were no adequate arms and ammunition.

When this is the attitude of the Marxist government in containing the Maoist menace, Marxists are charging their beta noire Mamta Banerjee for being soft on Maoists or for arriving at a deal with them. It may be a fact that Mamta di must be deriving vicarious pleasure when the Maoists are targeting the Marxists in West Bengal for after all “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”. When her one point agenda in politics is to throw out the Marxist government in West Bengal who have been ruling the roost for three decades, she is prepared to take help from any quarter.

But what Mamta di should realise is that Maoists have always played this game and they will have no remorse to turn against her once she ascends the gaddi. They did it twice in Andhra Pradesh. When the late Dr Marri Channa Reddy wanted to finish TDP, he took the help of Peoples War Group and returned as chief minister for the second time. Late Dr Y S Rajasekara Reddy also followed in his footsteps and scored a spectacular win in 2004. As a thankgs giving gesture, he lifted the ban on PWG immediately after coming to power and invited them for talks. That the talks were a miserable flop is a different story. And YSR had to constitute a special elite force to wipe out Maoists from the state.

Whether the Maoists offer of ceasefire is real or a ploy to regroup, as they always did like the LTTE of yesteryears, what is there for Chidambaram to talk to them when he said “Maoists should abjure violence and issue a statement that they were prepared for talks”. Several intellectual groups (read Maoist sympathisers or front organisations in the garb of NGOs) want the Centre not to miss this opportunity for talks. This is quite amusing. Talks for what? Does the government expect the Maoists to give up their ideology of capturing power through the barrel of gun after the so-called talks? If the government thinks so, it seems to have learnt no lesson from the past. If anyone has illusions about the Maoists love for the poor and tribals, they exposed themselves when they brutally attacked a tribal village in Bihar and massacred them and burnt their houses.

The bottom line is that Maoists will not be prepared to dilute their ideology, even if – a big IF indeed - they abjure violence for a shortwhile. They are not going to come before Chidambaram with ash and sac clothes. So long as their ideology remains, talks are going to be just talks for the sake of talks. We have seen it in Andhra Pradesh where they insisted on coming to talks with their guns slung on their shoulders. What happened after the talks is history now.

Rajpaksha mantra is the only answer for the Maoist menace