KALPETTA (WAYANAD): Narayanan Mooppan, 60, the chieftain of the Karinkanni Kattunaykka colony in Wayanad, cringes as he recollects the events unfolded before him on the eve of the Independence Day a year ago.
A group of gun-wielding men and women forced their way into the colony and terrorised the residents for several hours, before disappearing into the contagious forests in the neighbouring district. The police later recovered copies of the provocative pamphlets distributed by the group members, who were reportedly wearing uniforms similar to that of security forces.
The northern region of Kerala, a hotbed of Naxalite activities during the late 60s and early 1970s, is now bracing for a new threat—Maoism.
It is believed that the banned outfit, which has a strong presence in remote regions of Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and the tribal-dominated areas in the borderlands of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha, has been trying to establish a base on the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in a bid to expand its activities to the southern part of the country.
According to police sources, the group’s prime motive appears to establish a forest route from Wayanad to Mysore in Karnataka that would connect the tri-junction where tiger reserves of Bandipur and Nagarhole in Karnataka, Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala merge. The new route would help them link the Eastern Ghats to the Western Ghats, which has some of the widest and deepest forests.
“Primary evidence points to the involvement of Maoists behind the recent incidents in Kerala. There are coordinated efforts by security forces in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to fight the menace. Strict vigil is being maintained along the tri-junction,” said State Police Chief DGP K S Balasubramaniam, declining to divulge details of the combing operations.
Wayanad, one of the most backward districts with the largest tribal population in Kerala, is said to be the most vulnerable area in South India to Maoist infiltration. The district which lies along inter-state borders has many elements that provide fertile soil for the insurgent group to thrive. They include: social and economical backwardness, dense forests and rough terrains, proximity to two states, and most importantly, a history of left extremism and armed struggle.
In the early 70s, Naxalites emerged as saviours of thousands of tribal people and landless farmers in Wayanad, who were subjected to brutal exploitation by upper-class landlords. The revolts that followed resulted in the death of many police officers, landlords and Naxal leaders, including Arikkad Varghese, who died in a police encounter in the Thirunelly forest on February 18, 1970. Twenty-nine years after his death, the CBI launched a probe into the incident following a public confession made by Ramachandran Nair, a retired CRPF constable, that Varghese was, in fact, killed in a fake encounter. The CBI stated that Varghese was arrested, brought to CRPF camp at Thirunelly and was shot dead by Nair in cold blood with his hands tied behind on orders from his superiors—SP P Vijayan and DSP K Lakshmana.
Lakshmana, the second accused, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI Special Court in October 2010. Vijayan, third accused, was acquitted for lack of evidence while the main accused Nair died in 2006.
Varghese’s death debilitated the leadership of the Naxalbari movement in the region and dealt a major blow to its activities. Eventually, the radical outfit was wiped off from the state by mid-70s as a result of the stern legal actions initiated by Congress leader K Karunakaran.
Those who led the rebellion, including the likes of K Ajitha, Gro Vasu and K Venu, parted ways and switched to social
activism.
“I can’t predict whether the movement will find mass support in Kerala or not, but it is clear that the growing social disparities is one of the major factors behind the return of the Left-wing extremism to the state. There are many tribal families who are deprived of basic amenities such as water and electricity and health facilities. The tribal belts are still conducive to be the breeding ground for Left-wing extremism,” said Ajitha, who now heads Anweshi, a non-governmental organisation she founded in 1993.
The seeds of armed liberation struggle sowed by the Naxalite movement started to sprout across the region in early 90s in the form of Left-wing extremist outfits such as the CPI-ML (Naxalbari), CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Red Flag, CPI (Maoist), Porattam and the Ayankalipada. The Martyrdom Day of Naxal Varghese provided the red rebels a platform to express themselves and spread their propaganda. Sensing troubles in the long run, the police in 2013 denied the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Red Flag the permission to hold public meetings in connection with the observance of the Martyrdom Day.
“The state is open to protests organised in a democratic way, but those who call for an armed struggle against a democratically elected government are definitely pursuing hidden agendas,” said Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala.
Reacting to a recent intelligence report, the state police issued a lookout notice for 10 activists of the Western Ghats special zonal committee of CPI (Maoist). The notice included Roopesh alias Praveen, who was accused of coordinating the activities of the banned outfit in the state, and Vikram Gowda, Latha, Kanyakumari aka Kanya, Sundari, Sinoj, Jayanna, Ravi aka Raveendra, Jagadeesha and Velmurukan. Sinoj, one of the outfit’s senior members, succumbed to injuries suffered while handling explosive materials on June 16, 2014.
Despite their strenuous efforts to infiltrate into the tribal belts in the region, the Maoists were not successful in making any significant headway in igniting a mass uprising. “The situation has changed drastically over the years. The tribal people are no longer bonded labourers as in the 60s and 70s. In the current situation, Maoists or Naxalites have no role to play among tribals as we are more inclined towards development and educational uplift,” said C K Janu, chairperson of Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, a major tribal organisation in the state.
Remarkably, the state government, taking a serious note of the looming threat, announced a slew of infrastructure development projects in tribal colonies in Wayanad to stop extremists from cashing in on the backwardness of the tribal belts.
Trying to derive political mileage out of the issue, CPI(M) leader and former home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan accused the government of failing to take cognizance of the intelligence warning of possible Maoist attacks. “The intelligence reports should have been taken seriously and adequate precautions initiated, but the government ignored the report and allowed the insurgent group to thrive and spread panic among people,” he said.
Chandran, a former Naxalite based in Wayanad, said the state government was trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill to receive central funds earmarked for combating Maoists. “The number of active Maoists in Kerala could be less than 20. There are disgruntled youngsters who could be lured to radical politics. They are byproducts of unemployment and anti-people policies of governments. Instead of spending lakhs and crores on the so-called anti-Maoist operations, the state should address this grave issue,” he warned.