Maoist campaign saw continuity across regimes, sharper push recently: Former MHA official

Both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led governments at the Centre pursued a broadly consistent approach in handling the Maoist problem in the country, said K. Vijay Kumar, former senior security adviser to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), who worked with administrations of both parties.

He said that the years 2006-2009 were the most difficult and the gradual gains made over the years found a resolute push in the past two-years when Home Minister Amit Shah set a deadline of March 31, 2026 to eradicate Left Wing Extremism from the country.

Mr. Kumar, who is a retired 1975-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and former Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) till 2012, said in an interview with The Hindu that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had rightly recognised Maoism as the foremost internal security threat.

After the 2010 killing of 76 security personnel in Chhattisgarh, former Home Minister P. Chidambaram pushed through centrally assisted funding for counter-Maoist operations, the officer who resigned from MHA in 2022 said.

Around 200 district collectors were given discretionary funds to fortify police stations and improve mobility in remote areas, he said. “In Bijapur, the collector procured 30-40 vehicles to address the lack of transport, which were never ambushed as they directly benefited local communities,” he said.

He said in 2014-15 under National Security Adviser Ajit Doval a push was given to train local tribal youths in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.

“Both of us played a direct role in facilitating the training of 3000-4000 special forces personnel. It was done in a discreet way, giving them better arms and training. And some of them were surrendered Maoist cadres. There were a lot of problems earlier, stigmatised by certain court observations, allegations of arson and looting,” Mr. Kumar said.

He said that 99.99% of allegations of human rights violation against security forces were false and part of “psy ops” to demoralise the armed personnel.

He said after the Dantewada incident, CRPF was made the “patch force” which could operate across States and beyond police jurisdictions and in 2011 it got a separate intelligence wing. “Cash was disbursed through helicopters. There was no sign of governance in many places. CRPF camps acted as the single point of the government,” he said.

He added that the “children wing” of the Maoists were the most ruthless. “The child cadres are good in observation, and they can be heartless. Similarly, the woman cadres were better trained than the men,” the former CRPF DG said.

As operations expanded steadily, he said, training, equipment, integration and coordination improved year after year. “That is the only difference I see—greater vigour over time—but the continuity in approach remained,” he said, adding that he himself was part of that continuity across governments.

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