'DNA' special: Maoists hound army aspirants

The Maoists are threatening to scuttle a rare Indian Army employment drive in the heart of the Bastar region in Chattisgarh. The rebels are desperate because they fear that such job creation would reduce their clout in a difficult terrain where they have held sway for years now.

A district magistrate of one of these seven Bastar districts, P Anbalagan is overseeing this Army move to recruit members of the tribal population and bring them into the mainstream.

Apparently, the state administration in Raipur is aware that the Maoists have got to know which candidates have been selected in the recruitment drive and are approaching them individually. The hardcore rebels are warning these young aspiring tribals that they would face dire consequences if they accept the Army offer.

Senior officials said over telephone from Raipur that the state government was even willing to provide protection to these tribals so that they are not dissuaded from joining the army by these committed Maoist volunteers. Anbalagan himself told the DNA that the army job opportunity was being considered so “respectable” and “lucrative” by the young men that they might eventually ignore the Maoist threats.

Interestingly, this particular recruitment drive has nothing to do with the role of the “special police officers” who are provided jobs by the state administration and are meant to take on the Maoists. The Army has no role in containing the Maoist menace and those recruited would be deployed for army operations elsewhere.

Unlike Salwa Judum, which was strongly disapproved of by the Supreme Court, these Army recruits won’t be pitted against fellow tribals with a Maoist inclination.

The objective of this particular drive which the Army launched late last year was to absorb more personnel from an often-neglected state like Chhatisgarh. The Army wanted to rectify a prevailing deficiency - that of providing jobs to the Maoist-affected areas of Chhatisgarh. Earlier, even if recruitment was done in this province it was only in areas untouched by extremist violence.

So, the district administrations made public announcements and helped organise a recruitment drive among Class X, XI and XII students and even among those who were pursuing courses in polytechnic institutions. There was a pleasant surprise, said Anbalagan, when thousands turned up for these rallies and a few hundred were selected for the written test.

Realising that such a job creation for tribals would alter the mindset of the local population, Anbalagan himself organised crash courses to help the backward Bastar boys prepare for the written exam. Ultimately, 261 candidates were selected from the entire state, 121 of them from the seven districts of Bastar including dangerous territories like Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Bastar and Narayanpur.

In fact, inspired by the resounding success of the army recruitment drive and the high turn out of the tribal boys, Anbalagan is talking to public sector banks and planning to organise an education loan mela to help wean away the young unemployed population from Maoist influence. He hopes that the tribals selected for Army employment will be able to overcome their fears, pay no heed to the Maoists and take up their new positions once the recruitment formalities are completed.