Maoists dream of long march

Blaming neighbours, particularly Pakistan, for India's internal conflicts is New Delhi's forte. But India has only itself to blame for a raging insurrection described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the 'single-biggest security threat India has ever faced'.

Analysts say that Dr Singh's candid assessment of the Maoist uprising, which has claimed more than 100 lives since January, is a tacit admission that ultra-leftist guerillas today pose an even bigger threat to India than the allegedly Pakistan-backed Kashmir separatists.

Strikingly enough, peace and normalcy are slowly returning in Indian-administered Kashmir as Islamabad and New Delhi improve bilateral ties. There is a proposal to pull the Indian army out of Kashmir in the changing scenario.

In contrast, rising Maoist violence across India, highlighted by no less a person than Dr Singh, is giving sleepless nights to police and intelligence agencies.

Significantly, the guerillas swear by Mao Zedong but they are not backed by Beijing. On the contrary, China's ambassador in New Delhi says they are maligning the Chinese revolutionary and has offered all assistance to crush them.

Last month, Maoists struck with unprecedented ferocity, gunning down 55 people in central India. Among the dead at Dantewada in Chhattisgarh state were police officers and vigilantes armed and funded by the federal government to combat Maoists. The two-hour-long operation was the deadliest attack in years carried out by 700 radicals who overwhelmed their 'class enemies'.

The raiders, according to the police, included women fighters in battle fatigues who fired automatic weapons with impunity.