With the recent arrest of Maoists in Mumbai by the Maharashtra police, it has become obvious that this menace is not confined only to the jungles. The Maoists are increasingly penetrating cities to indoctrinate people and collect funds. If intelligence reports are to be believed, Maoists are already ensconced in major cities. It is suspected that the Maoists may strike in the cities in order to gain widespread publicity for their 'New Democratic Revolution'. Large caches of sophisticated arms, explosives and detonators have been recovered following the arrest of suspected Maoists from the cities.

According to their new strategy, the Maoists plan to target important urban centres. They have drawn up detailed guidelines for urban operations, mobilising disgruntled elements like the urban unemployed to their 'cause' of eventual seizure of state power through people's war. The Naxals reportedly have plans to strike in the industrial belts of Bhilai-Ranchi-Dhanbad-Calcutta and Mumbai-Pune-Surat-Ahmedabad to take their battle into the heart of India.

While this may not pose an immediate threat, the fact remains that the Maoists have been steadily working towards building bases and finding a foothold in many of the bigger cities. Currently, they have confined their activities to propagating their ideology, setting up secret cells for frontal organisations, and recruiting people. The Maoists have been trying to spread their movement among trade and labour unions, poor people and students. With every passing year, the Maoist guerrillas are tightening their grip in the country, claiming some 500 lives every year.

The union Home Ministry is planning to tackle this problem by helping the states raise 35 India Reserve Battalions (IRB) to crush the Maoist rebellion. The centre has decided to take serious steps to curb this menace. There are four layers of monitoring mechanisms although they have proved to be inadequate. However, the union government has decided to add a fifth layer - a task force to be chaired by the Cabinet Secretary to coordinate efforts across a range of development and security activities including the Maoist menace. However, since law and order is a state subject, the centre cannot take direct police action after an incident unless the situation becomes alarming enough to compel a recourse to Article 355 of the Constitution.

The Centre has provided 33 battalions (over 33,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces to the states for deployment in the Naxal-affected districts. This has, however, proved insufficient considering that Naxalism now affects almost 40 per cent of the geographical area of India. Chhattisgarh, for example, has over 13,000 personnel out of these central forces, but it has suffered more than 50 per cent of the total casualties (325 out of 601) in 2007.

Andhra Pradesh has shown the way by creating a specialised force called 'Grey Hounds' to fight the Maoists and achieved huge success in minimising casualties since its inception in 1989. The local police, backed by the armed reserve forces, the Grey Hounds, and a well-developed intelligence network, Andhra Pradesh has succeeded in controlling the Maoist menace to an extent. With Grey Hounds on their heels, the Maoists are on the run in Andhra Pradesh, but the paramilitary forces have not been able to neutralize the Maoist guerrillas in states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal where they are still to become effective to deal with the Maoist threat. The Maoists easily escape into another state after attacking civilians and security personnel, knowing that they can get away with impunity. The rebels are taking advantage of the fact that the states do not have a 'unified command' to fight them. Law and order being a state subject, such a 'unified command' is theoretically not possible. But there is now an urgent need to establish coordinated action and a strategy against the Maoists by getting over this constitutional problem.

Though the number of casualties in Maoist violence declined in 2007 (601) as compared to 2006 (678), statistics do not tell the entire story. Incidents like the recent jail-break in Chhattisgarh where rebels attacked a jail and escaped with hundreds of their comrades reveals that the Maoists are steadily getting bolder. The recent Nayagarh incident further corroborates this assumption. It is difficult to opine whether the new strategy initiated by the Centre will check the growth of Naxalism in the countryside and their growing influence in the urban centres. In the past, states have failed to coordinate police operations to tackle this issue. But this time, as the Maoists spread their influence into the cities, the states have no choice but to join hands.

Note: The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Government of India.