Finally, we have a Union Home Minister who means business. With his cool confidence and determination, Mr. P. Chidambaram is personally coordinating an large scale offensive in five states to recapture regions that are controlled by Maoist insurgents. The states that are worst affected by Maoist menace are West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgharh and Maharashtra.

For several years, prominent voices in India spoke about the Maoist menace. And for decades, the Indian government acted as if the only threat it faced was the threat of jihad or Islamic separatism or the threat of separatists in the north-eastern states.

Meanwhile, the Maoists slowly sent their tentacles through the heavily forested and most backward districts of India. They gained the good will of poor people by helping them in several ways. These were districts that did not have any evidence of civil administration. There were no schools or hospitals , no public distribution systems, no postal or telecommunication services. The Maoists ran a parallel government and provided security and services to the poor.

Thus, large tracts of land came under the exclusive control of Maoists. Today, the Maoists have active presence in over 200 revenue districts! The Home Ministry concedes that the Maoist dominate in 44 districts. They do not tolerate any symbol of the Indian state. During the past 20 years, more than 6000 people have lost their lives in Maoist related violence.

In the guise of fighting for the rights of the poor and marginalised, they gained the support of “intellectuals.” The Maoists’ recent announcement that they are willing to negotiate with the Indian government in the presence of intellectuals such as Arundhati Roy must make us sit up and think. The so-called intelligentsia must stop thinking that Maoists are rights-activists. Does it take much to understand the political ambitions of Maoists seeing that they have captured power in neighbouring Nepal?

It is said that the Maoists intend to overthrow the Indian state and make India an extremist red state. That Maoism grew right under the nose of the communist government in West Bengal tells a lot about the what the Left is all about. Mr Chidambaram dispelled the popularly-held notion of human rights activists and community-based groups that Naxalites are pro-poor and development. He said that they seek to overthrow the Indian State through armed rebellion and their revolution is all about territorial control. He quoted from recently recovered documents that the Maoists now intend to spread their terror to urban centres.

Mr Chidambaram is confident. He says, “I am confident that before the UPA's second term ends, we will be able to get rid of the Maoist menace.” Chidambaram also clarified that it is the legitimate right of the Indian State to reclaim territories where they have lost control to Naxalites, and when that is done in about two years, development work can be pursued expeditiously.

Now it is up to the states to get serious about their duty to fight the Maoists. The Centre can only co-ordinate the operation. Sympathisers within states and political parties must prove their commitment to the Constitution of India by destroying the Maoist network.

The Union Home ministry’s strategy of targeting the top leadership of Maoists is yielding results. Several key leaders are now under arrest. “We want to drive them into a headless condition, so we will go after the leadership,” Mr Chidambaram said, “but we don't want a Sri Lanka-type operation that could cause much collateral damage to innocent civilians. So we are specifically targeting the Maoist leadership and you will see a lot of special operations based on specific intelligence.”

Let us hope that Home Minister’s hope is well founded and that he and his team will succeed in wiping out Maoist insurgency from this subcontinent.