Earlier this year, top leaders of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) gathered in a secured enclave along the Jharkhand-Orissa border and drew up a list of what they planned to do over the next few months. Six months down the line, party members seem to be doing exactly that, in a manner that is chilling and is as good an indicator as any about how the Naxal cadre operates.

That occasion was the 9th Congress of Maoists. The message that went out was clear. While they continued with their existing agenda of armed struggle, mega projects–including steel and bauxite projects in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh–and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) planned in other regions had to be ‘‘resisted’’ since they were leading to ‘‘massive displacement and marginalisation’’ of the Adivasis and farmers. The result of the call: a major mobilisation exercise to increase the numbers Naxalites and establish a presence in areas where they had till now been inactive; sourcing of arms and a 48-hour economic blockade last month that paralysed life in many parts of Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.

The latest intelligence inputs suggest that left extremists have managed footholds around cities and industrial hubs in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi. Parts of Uttar Pradesh–particularly Sonebhadra and Mirzapur–and Uttarakhand have also reported the presence of Naxalites. And their influence in the south no longer ends at the borders of Andhra Pradesh; Karanataka and Tamil Nadu too are now waking up to the threat.

The red footprint: 185 districts in 16 states across the country.

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