Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been repeatedly warning that the Maoists are the greatest threat to the country’s internal security but it took nearly a year for his Home Minister to react with a plan for joint actions against the ultra red rebels.

As the Maoists carried on their depredations killing CRPF personnel in Maharashtra, Chhatishgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand and annihilating Comminist Party of India (Marxist) activists in West Bengal, the Union Home Minister came out with a number of ideas, which were never implemented.

Chidambaram talked about joint operations by the affected states with deployment of central paramilitary forces, army operation, operations under the supervision of a senior military official and talks. But nothing happened and no actions were taken even though the Maoists went on with their clandestine activities ridiculing the so called government announcements.

Experts feel that the absence of a joint operation had only emboldened the Maoists to go ahead with their subversive activities killing security personnel and political opponents, blowing off bridges, telephone towers, school buildings and railway track and stations and looting banks and post offices.
They also questioned the accurateness of the intelligence reports about the terrorist attacks, including those by the Maoists. “Our intelligence reports are like the opinions of the cricket commentators on the behaviour of the wicket. It may prove correct and often may not. It happened in Mumbai, it happened in Pune and Shilda was no exception to this,” they observed.

The experts also sharply reacted to Chidambaram’s criticism that the West Bengal government had failed to properly manage the Jharkhand border from where the Maoist hit squad came to carry out the attack on the Shilda EFR camp.

“It seems that Chidambaram had little idea about the West Bengal – Jharkhand border. It is very difficult for the West Bengal police to manage the Jharkhand border unless it efforts are reciprocated by the Jharkhnad counterparts. That is why the West Bengal government has repeatedly been demanding joint operations by the security forces of the neighbouring states with help from the Centre and involvement of the Central paramilitary forces,” they pointed out.

They alleged that Chidambaram had preferred to ignore the demands of the state governments for ‘political reasons’ as most of the states, which are affected by the Maoist depredations, are ruled by the opposition parties. “In West Bengal’s case Chidambaram was more busy in addressing the allegations by the United Progressive Alliance partner Trinamool Congress than the genuine problems faced by the Left Front government in tackling the Maoist menace. Unfortunately the Centre preferred to remain a silent spectator when the Maoists and the Trinamool Congress joined hands to launch heinous attacks on the life and property of the CPI(M) activists and local level leaders,” they observed.

The experts, however, felt that situation suddenly changed with the appointment of former security chief M K Narayanan as the governor of West Bengal. “Everybody knows that Chidambaram and Narayanan were not in best of terms. It was obvious that as a security expert Narayanan would definitely recommend to the President the need for immediate joint operations by the Central and state security forces by West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar to counter the Maoists depredations,” they pointed out.

Accordingly the meeting was held on February 9 at the Writers’ Buildings in Kolkata and a move was initiated to chalk out the modalities for joint operation by the nighbouring states. “But before the joint operation could materialise with the deployment of sufficient central paramilitary forces, the Maoists from Jharkhand manage to sneak into West Bengal and struck with machine like precision destroying the Shilda EFR camp,” they added.