The problem with talks – or even with talking about talks – is not just that they have no possibility of success within the circumstances that currently prevail in the Maoist insurgency in India, but that they create expectations that they do. Within the existing situation, all talk about talks projects an enveloping incoherence on the perspectives of the state and its agencies, undermines the determination and will to fight and, indeed, even to prepare for the fight that is inevitable.
Politicians have little understanding of the fragility of the fighting man’s psyche. In their distant imagining, the jawan (trooper) is a trained and disciplined machine, ‘designed’ simply to obey and execute. But a man does not cease to be human just because you put him into a uniform; the intangibles that contribute to morale have to be understood by those who seek to guide warfare from the safety of distant command centres and State and national capitals.
Significantly, a flurry of statements about a ceasefire and talks between the Centre and the Maoists came in the wake of two major attacks executed by the Communist Party of India–Maoist (CPI-Maoist). On February 15, 2010, at least 24 Security Force (SF) personnel, principally from the State’s paramilitary Eastern Frontier Rifiles, were killed, along with one civilian, at a camp at Sildha in the West Midnapore District of West Bengal. Just two days later, at least 12 villagers, including three women and a child, were killed when nearly 150 heavily armed CPI-Maoist cadres attacked the Phulwariya village in the Jamui District of Bihar, on February 17.
Published excerpts from the diary of one of the EFR jawans killed in the Sildha raid are poignant testimony to the abject collapse of morale in the State’s agencies in Maoist afflicted areas in West Bengal. Suraj Bhan Thapa’s diary recorded: "There is a threat to our lives at all times here. Anything can happen at any time"; and further, "The party politics of a few people has endangered the existence of the country. We are also suffering..."
Just before the attack at Sildha, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium is reported to have told the Supreme Court, "Every officer in the area is marked for death". The same news report records the conditions of the Sildha camp: "No sentries, no watchtowers, a fence with one entire side missing, a crowded marketplace, a public toilet – personnel of the EFR camp over-run by the Maoists were little more than sitting ducks."
It is within this context that the farce of mutually rejected offers of ‘talks’ between Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Maoist politburo member Koteshwar Rao aka Kishan occurred. Initially, on February 19, 2010, Chidambaram had declared that the Centre would ‘find ways to facilitate talks’ with the Maoists if the latter halted violence for 72 hours. On February 22, Koteshwar Rao responded with a conditional offer of a 72 day ceasefire commencing February 25, if the Government suspended operations against the Maoists, released all ‘political prisoners’ (read, Maoists in custody) and "concentrate on development of tribal areas". This was, in some measure, a dilution of Rao’s earlier stance, where he had demanded the withdrawal of all SF deployments in Maoist dominated areas before he would engage in any negotiations with the State. The February 22 offer was made through the media, and triggered a flurry of adolescent posturing on both sides. On February 23, Home Minister Chidambaram declared that he would accept no "ifs and buts" for talks, and demanded that the Maoists first "abjure violence". The puerile twist came in the tail, when Chidambaram gave the media his Fax number (011-23093155) with the instruction that the Maoists could Fax their truce offer to him directly, if they were ready. Not to be outdone, and again through the media, Rao gave his phone number with the declaring, "If he (Chidambaram) wants to talk on our ceasefire proposal, let him speak to me on my phone number 09734695789. He is welcome to call me on February 25 but after 5pm.'' Unsurprisingly, there was no direct communication from either side.
The absurdity of this exchange is underlined by the fact that, less than a fortnight earlier, while addressing the Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security at New Delhi, on February 7, Chidambaram had stated: