Did Siddaramaiah declare Karnataka ‘Naxal-free state’ too early

Consumed by a sense of triumphant euphoria, the Communist Party of China (CPC) wrote in the July 5 edition of People’s Daily, “A peal of spring thunder has crashed over the land of India.” The CPC’s response had followed the 1967 Naxalbari uprising in West Bengal.

For the Maoist movement, thus born in India which came to be both derided and romanticized depending on which side of the ideological spectrum the movement was being viewed from, an end of the line has been set by Home Minister Amit Shah for March 2026. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has, however, declared Karnataka is “Naxal-free” with the surrender of six prominent insurgents in Chikkamagaluru district.

Of the six rebels who surrendered, four are from Karnataka — Mundagaaru Latha, Sundari, Jayanna, and Vanajakshi. The other two — Vasantha T aka Ramesh and N Jeesha — are from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, respectively.

“I believe that these six Maoists, after their surrender, will contribute as responsible citizens. With their surrender, Karnataka has now become a Naxal-free state,” Siddaramaiah said on January 8, welcoming the Maoists, handing over roses and copies of the Constitution. With Karnataka becoming a “Naxal-free state”, the government is contemplating disbanding, or downsizing, the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF).

So, what changed between CPC’s euphoric celebration of 1967 and Siddaramaiah’s somber declaration of curtains down to mark the beginning of 2025 and did the chief minister sound the ‘death knell’ for Maoism too early?

The Maoists’s organisational advancement was marked by anything but cohesion. Right from its early stages, the movement was characterized by severe internal differences and conflicts over ideological issues, tactical positions, and, above all personal egos of the leaders. Such was the intensity of these internal squabbles that the movement split repeatedly, particularly during the first two decades of its existence.

Body blow

What is believed to have served as the final nail in the coffin for Maoism in Karnataka is the encounter of 44-year-old Maoist leader Vikram Gowda, one of the last eight remaining in the region.

Gowda, who headed a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M) carried a combined reward of Rs 5.50 lakh on his head, was killed in an ‘encounter’ with Karnataka’s ANF in Udupi on November 18, 2024.

Gowda’s killing and Maoists surrender, and CM’s claim of ‘end of Naxalism’ notwithstanding, many say the ‘threat’ has not receded.

After the death of Gowda, media declared that the ‘red rebellion was far from over’, citing reports of armed cadres resurfacing in the Western Ghats. Even ANF underlined the movement’s enduring presence.

Conditional surrender

The January 8 development that took many by surprise was not without a list of demands. The demands include checking exploitation of the Western Ghats on the pretext of tapping tourism; rejection of the Kasturirangan Committee report, that recommends how to balance environmental protection and development in the Western Ghats; speedy trial of ‘false cases’ against them; and an end to police harassment, besides a judicial probe into the encounter of Maoist leader Vikram Gowda.

The surrender came after Siddaramaiah’s appeal on December 30 last year, coupled with the assurance that the government will be sensitive and work within the legal framework to facilitate their life post-surrender. It is reported Siddaramaiah agreed to the demands following pressure from the civil society organisations working to prevent further bloodshed. A three-member group comprising former Maoist leader Noor Sridhar, professor Nagaragere Ramesh, member of Shantigagi Nagarika Vedike and KP Sripal, advocate and member of high-powered committee formed by the government for negotiation held talks with Maoists, who agreed for conditional surrender.

Even as Maoists are waiting for their demands to be met, the government too has added riders to the development.

“They (surrendered Maoists) have not surrendered their weapons, as they didn’t have them and they are expected to disclose names of other Maoist leaders, who refuse to surrender,” Home Minister G Parameshwar told mediapersons.

Kotehonda Ravi is still at large

While the chief minister has made the claim, even after the surrender of six Maoists, Kotehonda Ravi from Kigga is still at large. Ravi had separated from the group of eight Maoists, who were active in Wayanad, Kerala and shifted to Karnataka a year ago, much before the encounter of Vikram Gowda. He separated from the group over personal differences and has been untraceable since. Besides Ravi, there are many other young Naxal leaders who refuse to ‘bite the bait’ of the government’s surrender package, after understanding the treatment meted out to their colleagues in the previous surrender instances, said sources within the movement.

To reach the ‘truce’, the government formed a group that met Maoists in an undisclosed location and held deliberations. Finally, Maoists ‘reposed faith’ in the government. “They were convinced that given the transformation in the country, we can give up our armed struggle for the people as there is an option on the democratic path. Without any pressure they have decided to join the mainstream,” said Sirimane Nagaraj, a former Maoist leader, who surrendered in June 2017, and mediated with the Maoists in the latest case.

It is significant to note that on December 8, 2014, two Maoist leaders — Sirimane Nagaraj and Noor Sridhar — who had been underground since 2005 returned to the mainstream. Significantly, Siddaramaiah was the chief minister even then.

“It was not a ‘surrender’ for me and Noor Sridhar. We returned to the mainstream under the programme of the Karnataka government to ‘rehabilitate’ Naxals who wanted to return to mainstream. We never surrendered and rejected the government’s package since the promises never came through,” Sirimane Nagaraj told The Federal.

‘Demands for the people’

According Parvatheesh Bilidale, who mediated for their surrender, the demands set forth by Maoists include ensuring permission for local tribal community to collect forest produce for their livelihood and protection of the rights of forest dwellers. “Most of their demands are not personal, but general and related to locals, especially forest dwellers, which could be met in a phased manner. The team convinced them that these issues should be addressed by taking policy decisions and cannot be resolved overnight to which they agreed and have made up their minds to give up arms and join mainstream,” said Bilidale.

It is no secret that Maoism has birthed and thrived in poverty-stricken areas of that country that never made it to the developmental map of India. Lack of roads, basic infrastructure, schools, uprooting Adivasis from their land for mega mining project are just some of the reasons which have fed Maoism. Police atrocities in the badlands of India forced many to pick up the gun and snatch the respect that the state refused to accord. These areas became easy recruitment grounds for extremist organisations.

As development still deserts these areas, and forced eviction of Adivasis continues, fear is that the armed struggle may see fresh recruits.

“Repeated appeals have failed on the deaf ears of the political dispensations over the years,” said Sanke Gowda, a native of Naadpal gram panchayat in Udupi.

“The situation is no different in other areas on the foothills of Western Ghats. Harsh realities of the locality had a direct link to the spread of Maoist movement in the area,” said Chandre Gowda, a resident of Yalagunda, the village from where Horale Jaya and Komala joined the Maoist movement two decades ago.

“Whenever a family member falls sick, villagers have to hire four-wheelers to carry them to a nearby hospital. Those who cannot afford to rent vehicles, carry their blood relatives on their shoulder,” he said.

So, what prompted the surrender?

Even as the government is claiming credit for its outreach efforts, many believe their decision is primarily based on a leadership vacuum created by the encounter death of Vikram Gowda. Banjagere Jayaprakash, a member to oversee implementation of the rehabilitation policy to surrender Maoists to mainstream said, “The committee also demanded an FIR against police officials of the AN) involved in the alleged encounter of Vikram Gowda. So far no inquiry has been instituted into the alleged encounter. The law must take its course and there should be no exception.”

The BJP, meanwhile, has also said the surrender shows Congress government’s leniency in dealing with the problem. The state unit of the BJP accused the Congress government of “transforming forest Naxalites into urban Naxalites”.

“Every time Siddaramaiah comes to power, it appears that leniency towards Naxalites and Extremists increases,” said Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar. Kumar though seems to have forgotten that Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself has urged the Naxals in Chhattisgarh on December 15, 2024, to surrender and return to mainstream promising rehabilitation support.

Statistics presented in the recent Lok Sabha session by the Union Home Ministry point at a sharp 25% reduction in Maoism in 2024 compared to 2023.

Senior police officers are of the opinion that compared to the clashes between Maoists and the ANF in Chhattisgarh, there has been no significant conflict between Naxals and ANF in Western Ghats, where the insurgents have used arms only as a deterrent. But, ANF refuses to buy that argument.

Right before his death, Gowda had taken up the issue of evacuation of tribals from forests following the Kasturirangan Committee report. Despite decades of ANF crackdown and government’s claimed rehabilitation efforts, Naxal activities continue to simmer in pockets of Karnataka. The recent killing of Gowda and reports of armed cadres resurfacing in the Western Ghats highlight the enduring Maoist presence.

Naxalism in Karnataka

The state unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxists-Leninist) (People’s War) shifted to a zone within the heavily forested Western Ghats region as part of a conscious policy to open another front of operations following a series of setbacks owing to the arrest of several of its leading cadre in the Kolar-Tumkur-Raichur region of Karnataka in 1999 and 2000. After the merger of the two major Naxalite formations in the country in 2004, the party changed its name to Communist Party of India (Maoists). The area was declared as Kudremukh National Park (KNP) in 1987. Exactly 10 years later, came the first notification on the ‘rehabilitation’ of Adivasi families, who lived within the park area.

The move towards the operationalisation of a rehabilitation package, which envisaged the eviction of thousands of poor families that had hitherto lived on the minor forest produce gathered from the forests coincided with the shift of the party to the region. The party built its base by espousing the cause of Adivasis who faced crushing forms of oppression at the hands of landlords, middlemen and forest officials.

As Maoists championed the cause of the Adivasis, the cadre of the party received widespread support and trust from the latter. Organisations such as Karnataka Rajya Raitha Kooli Karmimkara Sangha, and Pragatipara Vidyarthi Kendra provided a platform for Naxal sympathizers to connect with marginalised communities by resolving disputes and advocating for the underprivileged. But the movement suffered a major blow in 2006 with encounter of Saket Rajan, alias Prem, a key leader during a police encounter in Chikkamagaluru. However, retaliatory attacks by Naxals in Tumkuru later, which left eight policemen dead, proved their resilience.

“The movement drew attention to socio-economic disparities, but resorted to violence, pushing the state to act decisively. Even after the arrest of senior Maoist leader B G Krishnamurthy in 2021, who renewed the movement after Saket Rajan’s death, reports of armed struggle in Udupi, Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru persisted. Some leaders including Vikram Gowda used porous borders with Kerala and Tamil Nadu to evade surveillance. Their return to Karnataka highlights the challenges of monitoring those areas,” said a retired police officer.

Naxal-free state?

Many former Maoist leaders were surprised when Siddaramaiah declared Karnataka a ‘Naxal-free’ state, after the surrender of six Maoists, while remaining noncommittal over dissolving the ANK.

“It is a tragedy that no one understood, what Maoism or Naxalism stands for. It is an ideology that forces every human being to fight for the cause of oppressed and depressed over centuries and exploitation of the poor by the rich. The fight on behalf of Adivasis, who have been denied sovereignty over the jal (water), jungle (forest) and jameen (land) will continue. As long as there is a real or perceived threat to their resources, Adivasis will fight and Maoists will support them. At least in popular perception, Maoists are seen as protecters of Adivasi interests. Hence, it is wrong to declare Karnataka a Naxal-free state. The movement will be alive till Adivasis get right over their land, forest and water,” said a former senior Maoist leader, who returned to mainstream.