Just days after a letter calling for PM Modi’s assassination was recovered from a suspected urban Maoist, reports have emerged which claim that Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been sent threatening letters at his office.
As per a DNA report, the Maharashtra CM has been sent two threatening letters by Maoists which were then forwarded to the police for investigation. India Today which also reported about this matter claimed that at least one such letter warned a threat to the life of Fadnavis and his family members.
The second letter as per the report seemed to have been from a whistleblower from Uttarakhand who claimed that senior Maoist leaders and sympathisers had met in the state’s Haldwani where they seem to have devised a plan to try and eliminate Fadnavis and his family. The letter also claimed that a task force had been formed by the Maoists to achieve this goal.
So why is it that the Maoists are becoming so desperately brazen in proclaiming their intention of trying to get rid of democratically elected leaders?
To give a short answer, their operations have been compromised to no end by the governments led by Modi and Fadnavis”.
A clue to this regard is provided in the India Today report which claims that one of the letters mentioned the operations in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli which saw at least 37 Maoists being killed this April.
Just a quick glance at the Maoist fatality numbers compiled by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) further explains why the left wing terrorists are so angry at Devendra Fadvanis.
From the start of 2018 till 27 May, a total of 116 comrades of theirs have been eliminated out of which 48 fatalities have come in Maharashtra – nine more than second-placed Chhattisgarh which saw 39 deaths. 43 of the deaths clocked in Maharashtra were in April, with encounters in Gadchiroli being a major contributor.
Now when it comes to PM Modi and his government, the fatalities of left-wing extremists again provide an answer. As listed out in an earlier report about 20 Naxals being gunned down in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma, the numbers of deaths and surrenders by such extremists have been on the rise since 2015 – Modi government’s first full year in charge.
For example, 2016 had seen the elimination of 244 leftist terrorists – the highest figure since 2009 and a surrender by 2281 comrades – the highest figure between 2006 to 2017.
The results of such counter-insurgency operation were tangible and resulted in the red terror affected districts shrinking to just 58 from the earlier figure of 75 in 2015.
What might have further complicated matters for the extremist outfits is the fact that the Modi government has implemented quite a few developmental measures in the Maoist affected regions which have been woefully lacking in basic infrastructure.
Some of these steps include spending a whopping Rs 11,000 crore to build roads in the red corridor, building a bridge delayed by nine years in just 30 days, erecting mobile towers and starting a first express train service the Maoist bastion of Dantewada.
This would have dealt a blow to the “state apathy” narrative, used ever so frequently by the left wing terrorists to seek sympathy for their actions.
Things might be about to get a lot worse for the left wing terrorists, as the administration has even started to go after the “urban Naxals”, as noted in the form of the arrest of five such suspects who occupied prestigious posts in academics, law and the social sector.
Undoubtedly when a red terror operative glances at the aforementioned developments, he or she might employ the natural instincts of fear and desperation to somehow try and cope with the situation.
Hence the letters seeking the elimination of India’s top politicians might be their final roll of dice to try and arrest the descent into oblivion.
