[3/11] Left Wing Extremism: Modus Operandi

• Creating a political and governance vacuum through Guerrilla warfare tactics-
• Some sections of the society, especially the younger generation, have romantic illusions about the Maoists, arising out of an incomplete understanding of their ideology. The central theme of Maoist ideology is violence.
• The Maoist insurgency doctrine glorifies violence as the primary means to overwhelm the existing socio-economic and political structures. The Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of CPI (Maoist), has been created with this purpose in mind.
• In the first stage of the insurgency, the PLGA resorts to guerrilla warfare, which primarily aims at creating a vacuum at the grass-roots level of the existing governance structures.
• This is achieved by killing lower-level government officials, police-personnel of the local police stations, the workers of mainstream political parties and the peoples representatives of the Panchayati Raj system.
• After creating a political and governance vacuum, they coerce the local population to join the movement. A strident propaganda is also carried out against the purported and real inadequacies of the existing state structure.


• Controlling the countryside and Front Organisations-
• In areas under Maoist domination, the absence of governance becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy since the delivery systems are extinguished through killings and intimidation. This is the first step in the strategy of the Maoists to seek to control the countryside.
• In the meanwhile, many Front Organisations are created to facilitate mass-mobilisation in semi-urban and urban areas through ostensibly democratic means. Most of the Front Organisations are led by well-educated intellectuals with firm belief in the Maoist insurgency doctrine.
• These ideologues function as masks to cover the violent nature of the CPI (Maoist) ideology. They also form propaganda/disinformation machinery of the party.


• Gaining Sympathizers and Tactic United Front-
• Maoists have ultimate objective to capture the cities and Mao in a statement said that this is not possible without ‘adequate work’ on ground in urban areas. This is part of long term strategy and for this Maoist have Front Organizations active in Cities.
• The Maoists use their front organisations with whom Maoists have formed the TUF like Revolutionary Democratic Front, Democratic Student Union, People’s Democratic Front of India (PDFI), the Committee against Violence on Women (CAVOW), and the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), among others to generate people’s sympathy through persistent pursuance of propaganda on issues like ‘displacement of tribals’, ‘corporate exploitation’, ‘human rights violations’ by security forces etc. and often make fantastic claims in this regard which get reported even by the mainstream media.
• The Front Organisations also skilfully use state structures and legal processes to further the Maoist agenda and weaken the enforcement regime.
• The important functions of these Organisations include
• recruitment of ‘professional revolutionaries’,
• raising funds for the insurgency,
• creating urban shelters for underground cadres,
• providing legal assistance to arrested cadres
• providing logistic supplies to interior bases,
• providing shelter in case of medical emergencies
• mass- mobilisation by agitating over issues of relevance/ convenience.
• The Front Organisations aim to provide short-term democratic subterfuge to cover-up the totalitarian and oppressive nature of the Maoist ideology.
• The CPI (Maoist) also have a strategic game-plan to create a ‘United Front’ with all like-minded insurgent / terrorist outfits in India. It needs to be remembered that many of these outfits are supported by external forces inimical to India and the CPI (Maoist) consider such alliances as strategic assets.
• They try to mobilize working class against employers and government. They may form underground networks through which they can attempt to sabotage state security by any possible means and to expand outside forests into the urban areas to win over non peasant classes and other social groups.
• The strategy for urban areas of the country includes mobilization and organization of the working classes, building a Tactical United Front (TUF) of classes similarly placed to the working classes and military tactics involving sabotage actions and select assassinations by ‘action teams’.
• Time and again, Maoist Sympathizers are arrested from Delhi and found to be aiding activities of the Maoists.
• In a nutshell, the CPI (Maoist), the main LWE outfit in India, aims to overthrow the existing democratic state structure with violence as their primary weapon, and mass mobilization and strategic united fronts as complementary components and plans to usher in so called ‘New Democratic Revolution’ in India.
• The Maoists have also maimed and murdered those they suspect of being ‘informers’.


• Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC)-
Maoists carry out violent activities called TCOC which run from March to early Monsoon in July. The Maoists usually resort to TCOC every year to put the security forces in disarray so that they can go on a recruitment drive.


• Recruitments by Naxals-
• Naxals often use coercion for employing new cadres. They introduced compulsory service of one member from every Adivasi family. This caused much resentment in Adivasis which decreased their influence. Once on rebellion by people against this practice, 70 villagers were killed by Maoists.
• Apart from this they use every possible mean including political indoctrination, promises of better future, remuneration, alliances with other violent groups etc.
• Ethnical, tribal and religious identities also propel recruitment. Shared identities and social networks work to a great extent in collaborative efforts. Also some rich recruits who are highly committed to ideology become financer of their operations.


• Sources of funding and linkages with organized crime-
The main source of funding of the LWE movements is extortion from government projects as well as from corporate companies working in their areas of influence. Most of the time, it is in the form of protection money. LWE is most intense precisely in areas which are rich in mineral resources. It therefore provides them enough scope for extortion.
Sometimes, they also resort to kidnapping and killings to terrorise and extort money.
Nearly 60 per cent of the armed contingent of the Naxalites is in Northern Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. In fact, according to the 2008 Internal Security Report, Naxalite violence in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand was as high as 58. 56 per cent and most of the casualties were due to the use of landmines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in these states.


Why Naxalites are concentrated in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand?
This is because they run extortion network under which main targets are mining companies and firms. These companies or sites of work are in far off locations which make them easy to be compelled. Also, parts of these sates are quite socio-economically most backward. So, it turns people more vulnerable to their ideologies. Lastly, they give employment to downtrodden people and pay them out of this extortion money.