New Delhi, March 5: On a day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government is ready to talk to any separatist group that abjures violence unconditionally and agrees to abide by the constitutional process, Union home secretary G.K. Pillai said the Maoists may be taking the help of ex-Army and ex-paramilitary personnel to build their own army to try and overthrow the Indian state by 2050.

 

Mr Pillai maintained that the Maoists were not serious about "talks" because they were not under enough pressure to do so. He said the Maoists were a very highly motivated and well trained force, like any armed force of any country. The home secretary said 908 people have lost their lives last year, the highest since 1971, in Naxal violence, and that the toll may rise in 2010 or 2011 before it comes down.

 

Mr Pillai raised concern over the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar going soft on Maoists against the backdrop of approaching Assembly elections. Mr Pillai warned that Maoists may move into Bihar as the anti-Naxal offensive is stepped up in neighbouring Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa. Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday said political parties like the CPI(M) and Mr Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) had been "ambivalent" towards the Maoists for "too long". "We are doing joint operations only in those states which want to do it. We are in no way forcing them because we can’t force them," he said. "We have a long, bloody war ahead. It is going to be a long haul and I see violence is going to go up. We do not have the forces to move into the areas where they (Maoists) are positioned," Mr Pillai said at a seminar on "Left-wing Extremism: Solutions in India" at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis here on Friday. Even as the anti-Naxal offensive is on, Mr Pillai said the Naxals have not suffered any significant reverses so far and the government would need seven to eight years to win full control over areas lost to the Maoists. The operations have not hit even five per cent of the hardcore militants. The real armed cadres are yet to come out, he said.

"Bihar has got elections coming in November so they are a little bit soft in taking any hard action," Mr Pillai said. He said if the Bihar CM felt he could control left-wing extremism in the state all by himself, the state should not ask for paramilitary forces. "You can’t say that look I do it my way but send 100 companies of paramilitary forces. That doesn’t work," he added.

Mr Pillai said precise intelligence-based attacks, planning and use of IEDs and swift retreats after looting arms from security forces give credence to the belief that the Maoists are getting training and help from ex-Army and ex-paramilitary personnel. Mr Pillai revealed that the estimated annual income of the Maoists is Rs 1,400 crores. Mr Pillai said after launching any attack the Naxals conduct a post-mortem to analyse their operation. The analysis is as good as that done by the armed forces of any country, he said.

"The overthrow of the Indian state is not something they are willing to do tomorrow, or the day after. Their strategy, according to a booklet they circulated, is that they are looking at 2050, some documents say 2060," he said. "Now they can bring many sectors of the Indian economy to their knees. But they don’t want to do it today. They know that if they do that now, the state will come (at them) very hard. They are not fully prepared to face the onslaught of the state machinery. So they would rather go very slowly," he said.

Speaking on the Maoist menace, the Prime Minister said, "We are taking firm action to curb the Naxalite (Maoist) violence. It is unfortunate that they are targeting innocent people and destroying roads, power lines and other essential infrastructure. In some places we have received reports of the use of children," he said.

"While we are determined to take firm action, we are ready to talk to any group that abjures violence unconditionally and agrees to abide by the due constitutional process," he added. The Prime Minister, meanwhile, said the overall security situation in the country remained satisfactory in the last year.

Age Correspondent