Blog | The Dantewada Massacre, And What India Needs To Do To Stay Maoist-Free |
Apr 06, 2026 19:10 pm IST
Blog | The Dantewada Massacre, And What India Needs To Do To Stay Maoist-Free
In 2010, I was Assistant Chief of the Air Staff controlling transport aircraft and helicopters, and on April 6 that year had to arrange An-32 aircraft to carry coffins of 75 CRPF jawans.
AVM Manmohan Bahadur (Retd) AVM Manmohan Bahadur (Retd) Columnist
AVM Manmohan Bahadur (Retd) Columnist
The government has announced that the Maoist menace has been 'wiped out' from the infamous 'Red Corridor', meeting the deadline of March 31 it had set for itself. While one can bask in the glory of this announcement, it must be remembered that the task of shaping a 'normal', threat-free life for those in the dense jungles of the far-and-beyond has just begun. This was driven home by an almost full-page 'In Memoriam' published today in a national newspaper by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which carried photographs of 75 of its jawans who were killed by Naxals in Bastar district this day, a decade and a half back. This touched a raw nerve in this writer.
My father was the Additional Collector of Bastar district in 1982-83 and based in Kanker, a name that got synonymous with Naxal activities later. The place was peaceful, like any other village in the hinterland of tribal India, and our visits there were wonderful. So, when the Naxal menace became acute at the beginning of this century, I asked my old man what had transformed that quiet place into one where the government writ did not run. His reply shocked me - "We kept sending reports that a........