You have blown it Mr Chidambaram

There is no other way of explaining what is happening in the naxal-hit states these days. There is a massive movement of people in West Bengal, Odisha and Chhattisgarth. Reports about hundreds of tribals fleeing their homes in fear of the impending Operation Green Hunt are pouring in daily. There are also reports that the naxals are retreating into Andhra Pradesh’s north Telangana region -- which had been quiet for the past few years because of Andhra government’s successful anti-naxal operation-- that borders insurgency affected areas of neighbouring states. The naxals have also paralysed life in Malkangiri, Koraput districts of Odisha and West Midnapur of West Bengal and elsewhere, first calling for a 48-hour bandh in protest against the Operation Green Hunt and then digging up roads and felling trees to block passages to interior areas. Some of the inter-state roads have also been cut off. These are obviously meant to prevent movement of security forces. Simultaneously, organizations sympathetic to the naxalsa have been staging protests in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. The implication of all these developments is clear. Once the security forces roll in, they will find a Lalgarh-like situation everywhere. They will find the passage difficult and may have to confront the tribals being used as shields by the naxals. Worse, they may find the hardcore naxal militants, who have already fled to the interior areas or retreated to north Telangana, missing from the battlefront. So, what’s the point of the Operation Green Hunt, Mr Chidambaram? By announcing the operation to the whole world without doing the basic ground works first, you have blown whatever chance of success there was. Would it not have been better had your intelligence agencies got into action first to prevent this kind of mobilization of manpower and logistics by the naxals? Besides, by depriving the security forces an element of surprise that is so essential in such operation, you have allowed the naxals to set the ground rule for engagement. Nobody would be surprised, therefore, if the Operation Green Hunt ends up like any other in the past decades.