The Hunted: Maoists who surrender want a family life, but nothing really changes for them

The killing of a former Maoist, Korsa Joga alias Shivaji, who worked as a police informer, by rebels in Bijapur last week is probably the most tragic end of a Maoist love story. It also highlights the failure of the Chhattisgarh government to provide rehabilitation and security to Maoists who surrender.

Ever since his surrender in March 2013, Joga wanted to begin a family with his schoolteacher wife and had even undergone reverse vasectomy to become a father. He was the topmost Chhattisgarh Maoist to have ever surrendered, but all he got as rehabilitation was a temporary job of a Gopniya Sainik (police informer), a task that endangered his life and defeated the purpose of surrender. He remained a “high-risk target” and an officer termed his death as a “major loss of an invaluable asset”. He was killed just 3 km from the Bijapur district headquarters on Thursday.

A resident of Bijapur, Joga joined the Maoists in 2002, went on to become the ‘Military Intelligence’ chief of the West Bastar Division Committee but secretly left the outfit on February 1, 2013 and fled with Varalaxmi Korsa, whom he had met in a village school.

Both crossed a river to reach Andhra Pradesh and then went to Karnataka. “We thought the money was enough for us to begin a new life, find some work and buy a home. We were fools,” the couple had earlier told The Indian Express. The money — and the honeymoon — soon ended and they returned after the police arrested them and showed it as surrender.

Like Joga, Sanjay Potam alias Badru is also among the top “surrendered” cadres. A member of the powerful Darbha Division Committee of the Maoists, Badru left the party with comrade wife Sukki in February 2013. He was living a family life in a Bijapur village before he surrendered in November 2013 following police promise of benefits. Badru is entitled to cash rewards worth Rs 9 lakh besides a home and job. All he has received is the “Protsahan Rashi” of Rs 5,000, a year later in November 2014. Sukki became a mother in between, but they still live in Dantewada police lines. She was given a Class IV job at a school some months ago, but is yet to be paid salary.

“Bole hain vetan ke liye kuch kuch banana padta hai (We have been told some formalities have to be completed for the salary),” said Badru, who was recently made a Gopniya Sainik. “They should make me at least a constable.”

Living in police lines has marked the couple out as “enemy” for the Maoists as they live with 24X7 police guards. “I am now concerned about my baby,” said Sukki.

MONEY GAME

The fate of around 10 other Divisional Committee members who surrendered in Chhattisgarh is the same. In fact, more than 80 per cent of the 3,277 Maoists who surrendered since the formation of Chhattisgarh in 2000 till 2013 have been inducted into the state police.

A Maoist surrenders as he is tired of weapons and wants a family life. Under the rehabilitation policy, a surrendered Maoist is entitled to benefits like cash reward, job and home. However, in reality, only the colour of his uniform changes — his weapon and the threat to life remain the same.

In August 2013, a surrendered Maoist was killed trying to defuse a landmine when the forces took him to an operation in Sukma. Questions were raised on why an untrained person was asked to defuse a bomb instead of the bomb disposal squad.

There are financial irregularities also. The surrendered Maoists have received little rehabilitation or cash rewards as mandated. The total amount of rehabilitation package of surrendered Maoists in Chhattisgarh so far would have amounted to nearly Rs 100 crore. Last November, the Maoists accused the police of pocketing this amount meant for their former comrades.

Their relief and rehabilitation involves police, collectors, home ministry and the chief minister. A high-powered committee under ADG (Special Intelligence) is mandated to review and settle every case within 90 days of surrender. The committee only recently examined 136 surrender cases from 2009 to May 2014. Mukesh Gupta, who was ADG (SIB) until mid-November, told The Indian Express: “The rehabilitation policy took off in field only recently. We have had two meetings, in which we cleared 84 cases.” The cases have been sent to the districts for implementation where they await action.

MISPLACED STRATEGY

There is another issue. The surrendered Maoists are given quality weapons and dispatched to anti-Naxal operations with forces as police believe that “their knowledge of the terrain and guerrilla tactics can come handy”.

While a police force, expectedly, would extract maximum information from a surrendered Maoist, the implications of inducting them in massive numbers in Special Intelligence Bureaus and anti-Naxal operations can be serious.

The Indian Express spoke to many of these surrendered cadres, who live in the police lines of various districts and are exposed to sensitive intelligence, and found that for the majority of them, the heart still bleeds for the revolutionary ideology and they wistfully remember their former comrades.

The police are aware of the dangers of sending such men to forests but claim to have taken all precautions.

“I don’t take all of them. I examine them for long. If someone volunteers for operations, if he has such aptitude and has strength for moving in forests, I take him. We cannot generalise all cases,” said Bastar IG S R P Kalluri.

Former Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwaranjan said surrendered militants were employed by the forces even in J&K but cautioned that “a surrendered Naxal should be taken to operations only after great care and sanitization”. “Security forces should be convinced about his credentials,” he said.

The Andhra Pradesh police, who won a long battle against Maoists in the state, call Chhattisgarh’s approach a major disaster and a shortcut for tackling the Maoists. “We also had several thousand surrenders. But we never inducted them in police, may be one or two in special cases. Exposing them to intelligence or operations is inviting big trouble,” said a retired officer.

Significantly, none of the several senior officers involved in anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh discounted the possibility of these surrendered cadres either leaking crucial information or turning hostile at the decisive moment. “That’s the risk you have to live with. These are counter-insurgency operations, no ordinary policing,” said an officer. In fact, after almost every major Maoist ambush, the police almost begin looking for the mole within.

Few years ago, a surrendered Maoist couple living in a police post ran away with weapons. The police managed to trace and kill them later. In another case, a district collector raised an alarm when he learnt that his attendant provided by the police had links with the Maoists. All that moved later was the mere replacement of the attendant.

Surrendered Maoists say this is not the life they had left their comrades for. “Apna ek ghar hota to achha hota. Lekin sahab logon ko kaun bole (It would have been better to have my own home, but who will convince these officers),” said Badru.

Source 

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/the-hunted/99/