Why in news?

At least 29 Maoists were killed and three security personnel were injured in a gunbattle in a forest in Kanker district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh.

This was the highest number of Maoist casualties in a single operation in the Bastar region. This operation was carried out by a joint team of DRG (District Reserve Guards) and BSF (Border Security Force).

What’s in today’s article?

• Left wing extremism
• Current situation of LWE in India
• Maoism
• Recent Bastar encounter

Left Wing Extremism (LWE)

• Left-wing extremism is the single internal security threat that affects the largest number of States in India.
• LWE aims to overthrow the existing democratic state structure with violence as their primary weapon, and mass mobilization and strategic united fronts as complementary components.
  • They plan to usher in So-called ‘New Democratic Revolution’ in India.
• Left-wing extremists are popularly known as Maoists worldwide and as Naxalites in India.

Current situation of LWE in India

• Maoist violence came down
  • According to the Ministry of Home Affairs:
    • Maoist violence in the country has gone down by 77% since 2010;
    • The number of resultant deaths (security forces + civilians) has come down by 90 % from the all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 98 in 2022.
• Number of districts declared to be Naxal-affected
  • The government has cut the number of districts declared to be Naxal-affected from over 200 in the early 2000s to just 90 now.
  • It claims that the geographical spread of violence is actually restricted to just 45 districts.
    • According to the MHA, the arc of violence has been considerably restricted with just 25 districts accounting for 90% of the LWE violence.
  • The presence of Naxals is said to be minimal to zero in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Bihar, which were at one time their strongholds.

Maoism

• Maoism is a form of communism developed by Mao Tse Tung.
• It is a doctrine to capture State power through a combination of armed insurgency, mass mobilization and strategic alliances.
• The Maoists also use propaganda and disinformation against State institutions as other components of their insurgency doctrine.
  • Mao called this process, the ‘Protracted Peoples War’, where the emphasis is on ‘military line’ to capture power.

Central theme of Maoist ideology

• The central theme of Maoist ideology is the use of violence and armed insurrection as a means to capture State power.
  • ‘Bearing of arms is non-negotiable’ as per the Maoist insurgency doctrine.
• The maoist ideology glorifies violence and the ‘Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army’ (PLGA) cadres are trained specifically in the worst forms of violence to evoke terror among the population under their domination.

Indian Maoists

• The largest and the most violent Maoist formation in India is the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
• The CPI (Maoist) is an amalgamation of many splinter groups, which culminated in the merger of two largest Maoist groups in 2004;
  • the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist),
  • People War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India.
• The CPI (Maoist) and all its front organizations formations have been included in the list of banned terrorist organizations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Maoism and Naxalism

• Maoism’ and ‘Naxalism’ are one and same. Naxalism does not have a separate ideology. Its ideology is Maoist ideology.
• The Maoists’ three Magic weapons are
  • Party (leadership),
  • Armed cadre (operating from jungles) and
  • United front (a network of mass organisations in Urban areas).

Recent Bastar encounter

• Twenty-nine Maoists were killed in a fierce encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district.
• This operation was carried out by a joint team of DRG (District Reserve Guards) and BSF (Border Security Force).
  • DRG is a special unit of the police force in some Indian states, mainly Chhattisgarh, that is equipped and trained to fight the Naxalite and Maoist insurgency.
  • It is made up of local tribal personnel familiar with the local terrain. They are trained in guerrilla warfare, jungle warfare, and the use of modern weapons.
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