The media coverage of the Chattisgarh ambush and killing of Congress partymen by Maoists has largely been what the police and the government has been telling us. I am yet to hear the Maoists speak. Like some “leading” channels have been graphically explaining to viewers the web of deceit and clique in cricket, I half expected that the Maoist linkages would also be animated on the screen against live video with a belligerent anchor dissecting and analysing the motive behind such an attack. For example, did the well-informed anchors who claim to set the national agenda know that since 1992 every year in May the International Communist Seminar (ICS) organised by the Workers Party in Belgium hosts Communist and workers’ parties and organisations from the whole world? The CPI Maoists have also participated in this seminar and have co-hosted such seminars in Germany.

The linkages are far and wide and unlike what some may want to believe are not restricted inside the forests of Bastar. In 2012, the government on the floor of Parliament had stated that, “The CPI (Maoist) [has] close links with foreign Maoist organisations in Philippines, Turkey, etc. The outfit is also a member of [the] ‘Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia [CCOMPOSA]”. The CPI (Maoists) have established links in countries like Germany, France, Holland and Turkey. The Maoists co-founded the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) as well as the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS). To join the dots therefore, could be a fascinating web much more lethal and real than the cricket money trail followed incessantly by the media.

Although there were no such “animated” discussions on Chattisgarh or Maoist linkages, the incident was covered from all corners of the massacre site. Reporters were sent from New Delhi to follow the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his party President Sonia Gandhi and the party’s future voice, Rahul Gandhi.  Since 2006, Dr Singh has been repeating his annual speech calling Left Wing Extremism (LWE) the biggest internal security threat to the country – but has utterly failed to address the problem. If it indeed has been the “biggest problem”, the efforts to address the problem ought to have been big enough. Besides the disastrous Operation Greenhunt and the huge budget for development in Maoist-affected districts set by former Home Minister P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh’s neo-development mantras, the liberated zones have only been further liberated. A fortnight ago, I had written here how two members of the National Human Rights Commission failed to enter Dantewada this year because beyond the district headquarters and highways the government has virtually no control over the land. The convoy of Congress leaders and workers should have been a little more real about the so called “ground situation” in Chattisgarh.

I must admit I haven’t scanned all the reports coming out of Darba Ghati, but whatever I saw and read contains the details of the massacre, condemnations by political personalities (including Narendra Modi of all people) and the “bloody legacy of Mahendra Karma’s Salwa Judum”.

I missed the obvious connection which should have been made instantly. A week before this attack, eight civilians were killed by security forces in Ehadsameta village of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh. Three of the dead were minors. The villagers had gathered for the annual Beej Festival. (I don’t recall Sonia Gandhi and her son reaching the village to console the families or the Prime Minister making a trip there). A year ago, 17 villagers were killed in the very same district again by security forces. Reportedly, besides targeting Karma and seeking revenge for the death of “their” villagers last week, this attack was also timed to push back the government’s pre-monsoon operation planned in Bastar. Media coverage of the incident should have taken these aspects into account.

The first reaction of the government was to send in the Central Reserve Police Force and I was waiting for some channel to bark at that move calling it suicidal. No, they seemed to have forgotten how many of these policemen were killed by the Maoists not very far from where this massacre took place. At least 100 Maoists involved in this attack have reportedly entered Malkangiri in Odisha and anybody who knows the area will tell you how “liberated” it is. It has been a safe haven for Maoists – and the only time security forces launched an offensive in that territory they suffered a dramatic ambush on Greyhounds which killed 35 of the supposed best anti-Maoist commandos.

The Maoists are aware there will be a counter-attack this time too and the most predictable strategy they will adopt is to lay traps on the route. Do the security forces have an adequate response to this challenge? To my knowledge they don’t. Besides dispatching the National Investigative Agency (NIA), the government doesn’t seem to have any plans for now except for some semantic onslaught. There is hardly anything to investigate. It is time to act.