After 50 years of bloody guerrilla warfare, Maoist HQ Abujmarh has fallen: Giridhar

Gadchiroli: Once a guerrilla warfare strategist and a formidable commander of Peoples' Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), Giridhar, admitted in a candid conversation with TOI on Tuesday that the Maoist headquarters of Abujmarh, straddling Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, has fallen to security forces after 50 years of bloodshed.
"Abujmarh hills is no longer an impregnable Red citadel. The liberated zones have been smashed, commandos are conquering every inch of the Dandakaranya jungles. The Maoist cadre base has been practically wiped out," said Giridhar, who once steered seven ‘dalams' in Gadchiroli for 28 years.
"The movement had a spark, leaders had a vision, the ideology and party had a pull, but in contemporary society change can be ushered only through democracy. Why should a tribal kill a tribal? One a police officer, the other a Naxalite. Death for a cause is welcome, but meaningless killings find no place in history," he said.
Giridhar had engineered the deadly ambush of Rajnandgaon SP, Vinod Choubey, in 2009 and had 185 offences against him, before he surrendered with wife Sangeeta, also a divisional committee member, in June last year. He was also the brain behind mass mobilization and recruitment of villagers to the guerrilla force despite the new generation switching to smartphones, bikes and lucrative business.
"The tribal slogan of ‘Jal, Jungle and Jameen' (water, forests and soil) was no longer drawing youths and our cadre base was fast depleting. Police seemed more friendly to them with their civic actions, freebies, jobs and promise of a better life. We could not wean away our youth from the charm of mobile phones, bikes and girlfriends," said Giridhar, adding with education and lure of urban dazzle, nobody wanted to join us. "The youth did not want to die with a police bullet in their head," he added.
Giridhar's surrender finally turned the wheels for the anti-naxal operations in Maharashtra. And this was followed up with encounters of senior cadres like Milind Teltumbde, Rupesh and Bhaskar Hichami and Maoism in Gadchiroli lost steam. Giridhar's surrender was followed by more than 30 cadres returning to the mainstream.
"After Union home minister Amit Shah's call to wipe out Maoists by 2026, we knew police would ultimately smoke us out of our hideouts. Security forces' night operations to cordon and carpet bomb often left us clueless. We failed to counter their aggression," said Giridhar, who twice skirted death. "I was nearly killed in the Abujmarh encounter in 1999," he added.
Giridhar also said police aggression coupled with govt development plans left Maoists bereft of mass support. "While security forces came up with welfare schemes, civic actions and a fresh approach, our indoctrination began to wane. Maoist technical teams could innovate only with crude weapons, which would often go bust or explode at the wrong time. Our arsenal only had looted weapons of armed forces," said Giridhar, adding leaders like Hidma, Bhupathi alias Sonu and Prabhakar (the incumbent in charge of Gadchiroli) are still digging in their heels. "Prabhakar has sacrificed his life for the Maoist movement. We analysed every setback, but the fear of security forces, whether in Gadchiroli or Chhattisgarh, is so critical that we were getting overpowered almost everywhere," said Giridhar who is now sheltered with wife Sangeeta at a temporary room in Gadchiroli police headquarters.
Sangeeta, who is now planning a second innings in public life, said the oppression of women in tribal society triggered the influx into the guerrilla movement. "The girls are treated as a spent force and considered only for child marriage. Getting them educated is considered a waste of time and money in some tribal societies," she said.
Giridhar attributed the curse of ‘putul system' in tribal society to girls straying into Maoism. "In the putul system, girls from kin's family are forcibly married to close relatives. This is contributing to the Maoist movement," he said.
Giridhar, however, ended on a cautious note. "You never know the ideology may again revive with one good leader rising up against displacement, exploitation, ostracization and suppression. Every ideology leaves a spark behind and it ignites a volcano. Don't take any situation for granted," he said.