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Indian Express
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
From radical student to armed commando: Why Basava Raju's death is a blow to Maoists
For the two states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Basava Raju, who was killed in an encounter in Abujhmad on Tuesday, was synonymous with the Maoist party. The 70-year-old hailed from Vizhianagaram in Andhra Pradesh and was a student of the Regional Engineering College, Warangal. 'He was the students' union president of REC Warangal. He contested elections under the banner of the Radical Students Union,' a top intelligence officer from Telangana said. Basava Raju was known by his birth name, Nambala Keshava Rao, at the time. 'This was when the whole of Warangal was influenced by radical outfits. He was one of their important recruits of the 1980s,' the Telangana officer said. It is believed that Basava Raju went underground in 1985. 'He had been leading major operations ever since, and climbed up the ranks of the People's War Group,' the official said. The People's War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre merged to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004. Basava Raju's death is a major blow to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), intelligence officials in the Telugu states said, because he was the link between the northern and southern commands of the banned outfit. After Ganapathi or Muppala Keshava Rao quit the post of General Secretary of the banned outfit, Basava Raju stepped into his shoes. 'Ganapathi (70) was once known to unite the Naxalbari with the southern command of the party. He was known to have travelled the length and breadth of the country to bring the party under one umbrella. Basava Raju followed in his footsteps,' another Telangana anti-Maoist police official said. Basava Raju would be in West Bengal one day and in Srikakulam the next, all for the party, it was said in local tales, the official said. 'He was not just their ideological head but also their combat head, having grown up in the party from a very young age. His death is a major blow and the party could even be disbanded because of it,' the officer claimed, adding that there is no one in the party who could bring the cadre together like Basava Raju. 'It is almost impossible for the Maoists to regroup without him.' After Kishanji's (Mallojula Koteswara Rao) killing in 2011 at the age of 56, Basava Raju's loss will dent the party's Telugu roots, officials said. 'In the ideological warfare, the party's morale would be pretty low because of this death,' an official said. With the party finding no fresh recruits from Telangana in the past few years, the death of old cadre is fatal for the banned outfit, top officials said. 'We would ask the rest of them, the politburo, to surrender as soon as possible,' an official said.
Indian Express
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘Centre should think about Maoists' peace talks offer': Andhra ex-Home Minister who led 2004 dialogue with rebels
In October 2004, a group of 11 top Maoist leaders came out of hiding from the Nallamala forest in undivided Andhra Pradesh to visit Hyderabad's Jubilee Hills for peace talks with the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government. The government delegation was led by then Home Minister K Jana Reddy. At a time when a massive offensive against the leftwing rebels, Operation Kagar, is underway at the Karregutta hills in Chhattisgarh, The Indian Express speaks to Jana Reddy, 78, about the peace talks he participated in and whether, with the Maoists pushing for dialogue, the process should resume. Excerpts: * What were the circumstances in 2004 that led to the peace talks with the Maoists? Story continues below this ad It is imperative to understand the history of holding those talks. Just days before we held the talks, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War Group and Maoist Communist Centre merged to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). That is, several armed groups merged to form one armed party that is in existence even now. This party had been posing as the saviour of the oppressed: Adivasis, Dalits, and others who experience societal oppression. We (the Congress government in undivided Andhra Pradesh) held talks with them as they were socially rooted. If you look at the history of Communist parties, several of them had engaged in armed conflict for land rights and such, at one point in time or the other. The Maoists take root from such Communist history. * Is Maoism only a law-and-order problem? In the name of fighting social hierarchies, including feudalism and the landlords, the Maoists stood against the law and the Constitution of India. They have been posing as fighters for human rights while turning a blind eye to the law of the land. They indulged in violent acts in the process. Then they became a law-and-order problem for the entire country, not just Andhra Pradesh, because they posed a threat not just to the police establishment but also to the people. To protect the country, we had to arrest them and even take armed measures against them. * If the party poses a threat to law and order, why hold peace talks at all? The Maoists are a party that, as part of their purported fight for social justice, became an armed movement. They became a law-and-order problem. At that time, in 2004, the Maoist party was approached to bring them to the democratic fold. When they were claiming to be fighting for justice, we just told them to come into the mainstream and adopt democratic means to fight for justice. We told them that they were spending their days in obscurity in the jungles. We told them it was time to join the democratic process for just rights. We told them we were ready to fight for social justice as a government. Hold talks with the government to get justice is what we told them. We named this process of democratisation 'santhi charchalu' or peace talks. * Can there be peace talks when Operation Kagar is underway in Chhattisgarh? I think that a peaceful atmosphere is necessary at all times. Both sides (the government and the Maoists) should cooperate to bring about a peaceful environment. This peaceful environment should be brought about with mutual understanding. At that time, they (PWG) came forward, listening to our appeal. * But now the Maoists want peace talks, according to their appeals. Yes, at the time we called for peace talks and they listened. Now the Maoists are appealing to hold peace talks. The Union government should think about this. This cannot be dealt with at the state level anymore. It should be dealt with at the national level by the Government of India. If the current Union government needs suggestions on the matter, the Congress can give the same. As an individual, I cannot suggest anything. But this is a countrywide problem and the Congress high command will come up with a suggestion. The party will ponder over all the factors in this case and come up with a suggestion. In my opinion, the party will give its suggestion very soon. It is a big issue that requires a big debate.
