Maoist movement has no future: Woman insurgent

BASTAR FOREST - After over five years in the underground, Poriyam Poje feels that the Maoist movement has no future and that its activists have turned into robbers and killers.

The 27-year-old tribal woman says that she has no more charm for the insurgency that has been described as the biggest internal security threat to India.

Having seen the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) from close quarters, Poje is ready to bid goodbye to the politics of terror.

Speaking to IANS at a forested stretch near the Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh border, Poje said that Maoists had drifted from their ideology and were acting like “robbers, extortionists and murders”.

“I was fascinated by Maoist ideology initially when the ‘dadas’ (their leaders) assured me that we will overthrow the Indian government. Now I can say that the movement has no future as the members and leaders are behaving like murderers, robbers and extortionists,” she said.

Poje belongs to Muria tribe and operates a 12-bore gun. She is a member of Vijay Dalam, one of the party’s armed units. Poje spoke to IANS through the help of a long-time source.

The sprawling and forested Bastar region, home to many tribes, is a known Maoist stronghold and lies in Chhattisgarh’s southern parts.

“Dadas are now acting in Bastar as robbers and only killing innocents and extorting money from traders and individuals. There is too much sexual exploitation of women cadres at Naxal (Maoist) camps,” she said, speaking in broken Hindi. Poje is at home in Gondi dialect.

“In the past five years I have witnessed several incidents of forced sex. People have also misbehaved with me several times. They have killed minor boys and girls brutally when their parents refused to hand over them for the Naxalite movement. That’s why I have decided to return to the mainstream of society rather than being engaged in mindless killings.”

Poje, who was accompanied by a handful of male guerrillas when she spoke to IANS, said it was some five years ago when she was taken away by Maoists forcibly from her house.

That was when the Maoists were forcing every family to part with one member each for the cause. In just one year, she learnt to fire from a 12 bore gun.

“I had no fear of the police. I was involved in at least six major attacks in Bastar. But now I have firmed up my mind to return to my village as there is no end to looting and violence.

“I feel that the Maoists have no ideology. There is too much forced sex and exploitation of women colleagues at the camps,” said Poje, who is now looking for a man to marry.

“Though the ‘dadas’ claim their base is growing, actually in the past one year or so they have come under intense police pressure. They are running from one forest area to another. Even their area of influence is shrinking day by day,” she said.

(Sujeet Kumar can be contacted at sujeet.k@ians.in)