The Crimson Agenda: Maoist Protest and Terror

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In more than one-fifth of Indian territory, the writ of the left-wing extremists holds sway. Many jungle areas in Madhya Pradesh are out of bounds for junior forest officers. When the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express derailed in Rathigarh in September 2002, the Bihar police avoided traveling through Naxalite-infested tract, consequently delaying action. At many places, the police and the revenue system have been rendered redundant. ‘Jan adalatas’ held in Naxalite areas pass death sentences, readily executed. Even the junior bureaucracy of the state attends these ‘jan adalats’. The PWG and the MCC are working with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to establish a Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ) stretching from Nepal to the south of Andhra Pradesh and the Tamil Nadu sea coast. The CRZ, once achieved, will be an impregnable wedge between north-east and the rest of India. In Nepal, 32 of its 75 districts are officially admitted to be in the Maoist cauldron. This extremist movement is also a strong magnet to the rural and urban youth. There are forty parties calling themselves Maoist, claiming direct descent from Charu Mazumdar’s Naxalite party that made bloodcurdling news in 1967-71. With suitable State action, that uprising was scotched. The present Naxalites have learnt from Charu Mazumdar’s mistakes. They are better trained, better equipped in arsenal and in leadership, and seem determined to achieve their agenda of social engineering swiftly. In 1970, the author was appointed Commissioner of Police of Calcutta with the mandate to handle the spine-chilling Naxalite terror. The police force, confused, demoralized and undisciplined, had to be given the backbone to fight back. This was successfully done and the movement was snuffed out. In this book the author shares, with characteristic verve, his experiences of those troubled times, the challenges, the heartbreaks, and the resolve to finally win. His insights from his rich background on the strategy in tackling the Maoist challenge are invaluable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ranjit Kumar Gupta

Ranjit Kumar Gupta, born (9February 1920) in Dacca (now Dhaka), joined the police service on 3 March 1942. On Independence, he was posted to Calcutta as the Superintendent of Police (Wireless). In 1948 he became the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) in Calcutta at the age of 28. He also served for a few months as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Detective Department. In 1951 January he was posted as SP, Burdwan and in 1953 as SP, Midnapore. In 1955 he rejoined the Calcutta Police and reorganized it. Next year (1956) he took over as Deputy Commissioner of Police (HQ), and improved the training and discipline of the Force. In 1958 (age 38) he was posted as Deputy Inspector General, Northern Range. In 1960 he traveled on study leave to observe New Scotland Yard, the West Ridings Police in Yorkshire, and the Deuxieme Bureau in Paris. On return to India, he joined as the DIG, Armed Police, Training and the Border Police. He organized the Border Police from scratch. He then took over the Civil Defence in Calcutta. He joined the Food Corporation of India as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in 1967 to organized the office in West Bengal. After a brief stint as the DIG Central Range he was posted as the head of the Intelligence Branch in Calcutta by the United Front government in 1969. when that government was dismissed by the central government in 1970, he became Commissioner of Police, Calcutta. He managed to get the polls held in Calcutta in the crucial period of 1971. In September 1971, he became OSD with the rank and pay of Inspector General, then Special IGP and in July 1972 the IGP. He retired in 1977. After retirement he increasingly got involved in applied Anthropology (Ethnography). He became President of the Indian Institute of Social Research and Applied anthropology (ISRAA). He is the author of Poverty and Power in Rural Bengal and Essays on Economic Anthropology. He was President of the Calcutta Polo Club and a delegate to the Indian Polo Association.