Political myopia, folly, and sheer mischief have undermined counter-insurgency gains in many theatres across India, making a mockery of the tremendous sacrifices Security Forces (SFs) must accept to secure even limited successes. Unfortunately, there is no indication that the political leadership in this country has learned anything from the past, or that its wilful blindness and disruptive opportunism are yielding to any greater sagacity or concern for the national interest.
The situation in Andhra Pradesh, with particular regard to the Telangana region, is an immediate case in point. Over the past years, the Andhra Pradesh Police has struggled against great odds, and at great cost in blood, to bring a rampaging Maoist movement under control.
The Telangana region has always been at the heart of the Maoist insurrection, but by 2005, each one of Andhra Pradesh’s 23 Districts was in the Maoist-affected category. The situation had been substantially worsened by the ill-advised deal between the Congress Party and the Maoists in the run-up to the 2004 elections, and the ‘ceasefire’ that the new Congress regime unilaterally announced in one of its first moves after its electoral victory. Despite significant and further Maoist consolidation, however, the Andhra Pradesh Police were able to fight back after the breakdown of the so-called ‘peace process’ in early 2005, and by 2007, almost the entire State had been cleared of the Maoist menace.
Fatalities in Maoist related violence provide an index of the astonishing turnaround that was achieved in this short while. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, in 2005, there were 320 Maoist related fatalities (132 civilians, 21 SF personnel, 167 Maoists); 2010 saw just 33 such fatalities (17 civilians, 16 Maoists). To date, there have been just 4 fatalities in 2011 (2 civilians and 2 Maoists). There have been no SF fatalities since 2009.