Skip to main content

Concerted, organised civil rights stir is lacking against Operation Kagar

By Harsh Thakor* 

The entire country has been engulfed with barbaric oppression, with unparalleled destruction of constitutional organs for the past ten years. The emergency of 1975-77 has been more than ressurected by the present regime. and more repressive than the post-liberalisation period ushered in by PV Narasimha Rao. Neo-fascsim has been on ascendancy, as never before.
When two revolutionary parties merged to form the CPI-Maoist, PM in 2009 declared that “Naxalites are the biggest threat to internal security. It was the precursor of unprecedented military campaign in the name of Operation Green Hunt .Operation Kagar even if being an offshoot of is even more merciless than Operation Green hunt, with aim to establish a Corporate Hindu Rashtra.
Dandakaranya, sowed seeds for a wave of social upheavals and cultural experiments imperative, for India. It has witnessed waves of unparalleled violence for four decades. However at this juncture, in Operation Kagar (The Final Mission), with deployment of more than a hundred thousand paramilitary forces supported by drones, helicopters, and satellite surveillance, war of aggression has scaled a boiling point, unprecedented, turning into genocide. Operation Kagar is staged to be the final nail in the coffin to wipe out it’s most powerful adversary in the quest for establishment of the Corporate Hindutva state.

Background

The BJP is working to win for the third time in the General Elections. The installation of Ram in Ayodhya, the introduction of CAA to completely marginalise the Muslims from their own land, and attempts to bring a Uniform Civil Code by the saffron government to legalise the Hindu Brahmanical culture planted the seeds to turn India into a Brahminical Hindutva fascist state. On the economic front, all trade, business services, and natural wealth are being placed at the mercy of corporatisation. War on Dandakaranya is part and parcel ofr this very goal.
Militarization in Central India is integrated with corporatization and the penetration of large companies into India’s rich forests. Under the pretext or garb of combating the Maoists, these operations form a leeway for the loot of the country’s natural resources by large foreign corporations.
The reactionary state and its corporate accomplices and imperialist countries drool over Abujhmaad as it is considered to be one of the last places in India that has not been plundered and the forest remains protected.
Patronising the monopoly of finance capital, wearing the garb of constitutional democracy; this war aims to capture or plunder natural resources to mega-corporations. Relentless resistance in Dandakaranya against the large-scale corporatisation of its natural wealth beneath the earth provoked the rulers to convert Dandakaranya into one of the most intensive military zones. For over 3 decades. The government considers the Adivasi movement a thorn in the flesh to their corporatisation objectives. Ironically, the seizure of the so-called remotest areas has become a pivotal problem for the Centre.
After the Abhuj Maad incident, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that “the Maoist movement was the biggest enemy of development and they would liberate the country soon.” It expresses that the Maoist movement as the most potent threat among the existing mass movements rising against corporatisation in the country. The Central government’s slogans – “We will liberate the country from the Maoist movement and hand over the country’s wealth to the corporate”– reflect the same. The present Operation Kagar, though part of Operation Samadhan-Prahar, which started in 2017 is in a qualitative sense a different type of military campaign.
Mainstream media and even the alternative media are camouflaging or keeping deep silence on these genocides. Media personnel are distorting truth by stating that armed forces are killing tribal people out of panic.

BJP Offensive 

Immediately after the BJP grabbed power in Chhattisgarh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, stated the Maoist movement will be eradicated completely; and State Home Minister Vijay Sharma was ready to talk with the Maoists. Inspite of two contradictory views from the state, but they served a single purpose. One was complete extermination. So, hundreds of thousands of CRPF BSF, and other local forces were moved to Dandakaranya. The second was the call for negotiations. The conditions laid down for the talks were for causing no obstruction to the construction of roads and mining in the forest area.
Within no time, six base camps were set up in one Maad area in direct violation of favourable conditions assured.
Instead of finding a political solution to the conflict. the government shamelessly acted on behest of the corporates and proposed negotiations to safeguard the prospects of mining barons.
The BJP government made all these preparations in a most explosive fashion. On New Years Day, the security forces attacked Muddum village, near Gangalur, in the Bijapur district, and killed a toddler- Mangli- in the lap of her mother while she was being breastfed. On April 2, 13 Maoists were killed in an encounter at Korcholi in Bijapur district Four months into this year, 80 adivasis and revolutionaries were murdered in cold blood the name of encounters.
On April 16, 29 revolutionaries, including at least 12 women, were killed in an attack in a joint operation by the BSF]and the State police in the Maad area. It was part of a new war called Operation Kagar [Final Mission] by the Central Government. The North Block in Delhi deployed maximum forces to Dandakaranya [official figures -80,000] to capture the Abuzmad [Unknown Maad] area.
Aerial bombing was also carried out for the fifth time on January 13 as a continuation of the aerial attacks carried out by the previous Congress government Before embarking on this final battle, Amit Shah stated that the next General Elections would be held in the country liberated of Maoists meaning that his forces would completely extinguish the Maoists from the face map of India by 2024. The RSS’ official press announced that 2047 was the goal of realising the Hindu state. The Maoist movement is a thorn in the flesh of their ‘New India’ and the establishment of a Hindu state. The Sangh Parivar wants the Hindu Rashtra based on Hindutva and an aggressive political and economic foundation. Thus the Centre is giving making intensive war preparations and spending more than a lakh crores rupees in the budget to wipe out revolutionary movement completely.

Conclusion

As long as the revolutionary movement unfolds, it is not possible for such a ‘New India’ on the lines of corporate Hindutva, to be established.Central India has hosted at least fourteen major mass struggles in the last three years. These political and economic struggles are sprouting save forests, water, and lands. Millions of people have been relentlessly waging a battle against lack of bridges and roads, ill effects of mining and tourism, propaganda of Hindutva, and anti-farmer, unconstitutional laws. Governments at the Centre and the states were made to shiver in their spine and feeling that the previous Samadhan operation could not check the escalating mass movement inducted Misssion Kagar by equipping security.
The PLGA and CPI (Maoist) were the principal guides to the Adivasis in Abujhmaad in their life and death struggle for the environment, their land and livelihood. The Maoist party  has published a most illustrative and positive statement to spark people’s resistance from every sphere. However still there has to be integration of mainstream movement. A concerted or organised civil liberties or democratic rights movement is lacking, like in Andhra Pradesh in yesteryears or Punjab, in recent times, which significantly confronted state repression.
It is imperative now for the Maoists to act or work within the manifold of mainstream movements the day to day struggles of the people and not subject them to the dictate of armed squads. The Maoists have not sufficiently integrated in mass mobilisation of people, particularly the urban working class and failed to build a broad united front. It has not built genuine mass revolutionary resistance to combat the neo-fascist genocide of the Saffron BJP party and even in protests failed to recruit the people at large. Nor has it spurred the civil rights movement. Rarely to we witness genuine mass based protests of tribals or people at large.
It is always fresh in memory that what principally combated precursor of Kagar genocide, Operation Greenhunt, was the Democratic Front against Operation Greenhunt in Punjab and not the CPI(Maoist) armed activities .It is imperative for mass conventions or rallies to be held all over the country, particularly linking to urban working class. Today many democratic forums like Campaign against state repression are not successful in establishing link with working class.
---
*Freelance journalist. Thanks information from Red Herald and Virasam

Comments

TRENDING

From plagiarism to proxy exams: Galgotias and systemic failure in education

By Sandeep Pandey*   Shock is being expressed at Galgotias University being found presenting a Chinese-made robotic dog and a South Korean-made soccer-playing drone as its own creations at the recently held India AI Impact Summit 2026, a global event in New Delhi. Earlier, a UGC-listed journal had published a paper from the university titled “Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis,” which became the subject of widespread ridicule. Following the robotic dog controversy coming to light, the university has withdrawn the paper. These incidents are symptoms of deeper problems afflicting the Indian education system in general. Galgotias merely bit off more than it could chew.

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD *  It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

The 'glass cliff' at Galgotias: How a university’s AI crisis became a gendered blame game

By Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan*  “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information.” These were the words used in the official press release by Galgotias University following the controversy at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The statement came across as defensive, petty, and deeply insensitive.

Farewell to Saleem Samad: A life devoted to fearless journalism

By Nava Thakuria*  Heartbreaking news arrived from Dhaka as the vibrant city lost one of its most active and committed citizens with the passing of journalist, author and progressive Bangladeshi national Saleem Samad. A gentleman who always had issues to discuss with anyone, anywhere and at any time, he passed away on 22 February 2026 while undergoing cancer treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He was 74. 

Growth without justice: The politics of wealth and the economics of hunger

By Vikas Meshram*  In modern history, few periods have displayed such a grotesque and contradictory picture of wealth as the present. On one side, a handful of individuals accumulate in a single year more wealth than the annual income of entire nations. On the other, nearly every fourth person in the world goes to bed hungry or half-fed.

From ancient wisdom to modern nationhood: The Indian story

By Syed Osman Sher  South of the Himalayas lies a triangular stretch of land, spreading about 2,000 miles in each direction—a world of rare magic. It has fired the imagination of wanderers, settlers, raiders, traders, conquerors, and colonizers. They entered this country bringing with them new ethnicities, cultures, customs, religions, and languages.

Thali, COVID and academic credibility: All about the 2020 'pseudoscientific' Galgotias paper

By Jag Jivan*    The first page image of the paper "Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis" published in the Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs , Vol. 2, Issue 2 (2020), has gone viral on social media in the wake of the controversy surrounding a Chinese robot presented by the Galgotias University as its original product at the just-concluded AI summit in Delhi . The resurfacing of the 2020 publication, authored by  Dharmendra Kumar , Galgotias University, has reignited debate over academic standards and scientific credibility.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad   In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

Conversion laws and national identity: A Jesuit response response to the Hindutva narrative

By Rajiv Shah  A recent book, " Luminous Footprints: The Christian Impact on India ", authored by two Jesuit scholars, Dr. Lancy Lobo and Dr. Denzil Fernandes , seeks to counter the current dominant narrative on Indian Christians , which equates evangelisation with conversion, and education, health and the social services provided by Christians as meant to lure -- even force -- vulnerable sections into Christianity.