Maoist rebels infiltrate Indian cabinet meetings

Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent

MAOIST guerillas have infiltrated the highest level of the Indian Government, gaining access to documents from top-level cabinet meetings in a major security breach. The guerillas, who are waging an armed insurrection across 16 of India's 28 states, obtained minutes of a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that discussed tactics to deal with the insurgents. According to the magazine Outlook, the documents outline the success of the Maoists, known as Naxalites, in penetrating the Government. Those at the meeting, the magazine said, included the chief ministers of all states affected by the Maoist insurgency, along with senior intelligence and security officials. With intelligence and security officials expressing alarm at "a serious security lapse", the disclosures are galling for Dr Singh.

The Prime Minister has expressed concern about the challenge posed by the Maoist insurrection, describing it as the "biggest threat to the country's internal security". The Naxalites, well-armed and disciplined, operate in a swathe of states along a so-called "Red Corridor", from the border with Nepal stretching through to Andhra Pradesh. They take their name from the village in West Bengal where they began their uprising against "capitalist classes" more than 30 years ago. The rebels have between 5000 and 10,000 armed men and women to launch attacks against rural police and administrative centres, as well as trains and factories. They have also been involved in high-profile assassinations, including the recent gunning down of an MP and an attack on a police station, which killed more than 50 officers. There is evidence that their influence is spreading to the cities and that they have joined forces with unions.

The magazine quotes a senior intelligence officer as saying: "It's clear the Maoists have access to secret information and plans ... no wonder there hasn't been much success in our operations against them." Apart from the minutes of the meeting held at Dr Singh's official residence a year ago, the minutes of a second meeting in the heart of the Home Ministry in New Delhi's North Block government offices -- which involved members of the Joint Operations Command of the security forces in a discussion about strategy and the deployment of forces -- were also obtained by the Maoists, Outlook said. The first the Government knew of the security breach was when Indian army forces stumbled on an eight-page annual report of the Maoist Communist Centre.
"An explosive part of its contents relates to the outfit's precise and detailed knowledge about what was discussed in the two closed-door and high-profile meetings," the magazine said.

Source: The Australian Defence News, April 30, 2007