Declining Human Resources and Operational Capacity of the LWE

Published: 18th Oct, 2019

The recovery of huge caches of arms (automatic and semi-automatic) and relentless intelligence based counter-insurgency operations conducted in the dense forests and remote locations in LWE affected states have adversely impacted the Maoist firepower.
This, coupled with people-centric developmental activities undertaken by the state, has encouraged a large number of LWE cadres to shun the path of violence and join the mainstream.
Successful implementation of various development initiatives focusing on critical issues of Jal (water), Jamin (land) and Jungle (forest), has been perhaps the single most important factor in making it difficult for the LWE movement to attract large numbers of fresh recruits.
It may be mentioned here, that some villagers in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra launched a mass protest against Maoist appeal to observe a martyr’s week from 2018.
These incidents signify the rising levels of disenchantment with the Maoists and to an extent, the absence of effective leadership at the grass-root level. Interrogations of recently arrested and surrendered cadres, also endorse the growing resentment against the CPI-M leadership among the lower and mid-rank members. The cadres believe that higher ranks of CPIM have become money minded and do not much care for the ideology of the Party.