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The killing of state minister Madhava Reddy by the PWG lays bare the Government's claim that the militant outfit was on the defensive

By Amarnath K. Menon 

For a militant group which the state Government claimed was on the run, it was a stunning achievement. On the night of March 7, members of the outlawed People's War Group (PWG) were keeping vigil at a newly constructed railroad crossing near Ghatkesar, around 25 kms from Hyderabad. Around 11.00 p.m. their quarry turned up. A white Toyota Qualis and two escort cars climbed slowly up the approach road to the crossing. As the Qualis, which brought up the rear of the convoy, neared the crossing the militants set off nearly 100 kg of gelatine buried in the ground. The explosion threw the Qualis nearly 50 ft into the air. The PWG had taken out a very important target -- Alimineti Madhava Reddy, the Andhra Pradesh panchayati raj minister .

By any reckoning Reddy was a marked man. As home minister in the previous government led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, he had threatened to cut off the PWG's lifeline. Taking the battle into the bastion of the extremists he virtually had them on the mat. The PWG pushed Madhava Reddy to the top of its hit list because of his consistent hardline approach towards the naxalites. His tenure as home minister was marked by better information gathering on the group's activities, a sharp rise in the killing of its members in both genuine and fake encounters and an aggressive campaign to help those wanting to surrender and give up terrorism.

Reddy favoured a ban on the PWG's activities and got it reimposed after NTR had lifted it during his chief ministership. Reddy also made it a point to visit places where major militant attacks took place, often within hours, disregarding warnings about threats, to demonstrate to the police in the field that the Government was backing them fully. For the first time in a decade the state, it appeared, had the upper hand.

But the immediate cause of the strike against Reddy lay elsewhere. After the Telugu Desam was returned to power in the assembly elections last October, Reddy was shifted to the Panchayati Raj Ministry, according to Naidu, "to relieve some of the pressure on the minister". But new Home Minister T. Devender Goud put even more heat on the militants. Under him, the police made their biggest breakthrough, killing three top PWG leaders on December 2. The deaths rattled the extremist outfit.

The PWG struck back with deadly precision. The killing of the 51-year-old minister was not just a retaliatory move, it was also aimed at boosting the morale of its own cadres. By assassinating the former home minister in his successor's constituency, it wanted to send a message: the PWG is alive and kicking.

For the past six years, the PWG has used landmines to eliminate those on its hit list. Though there have been sporadic attacks on government officials, this is the first time they have struck so close to the state capital. And, by a strange coincidence, the attack came just a fortnight before US President Bill Clinton's visit scheduled for March 24. In fact, the shocking incident fuelled speculation that the proposed day-long tour may be called off. "There has been no security lapse," argued a visibly shaken chief minister Naidu, who spent a long time beside Reddy's body before the cremation. "The militants vary the tactics each time and try to throw the police off guard," he explained. That argument did not pacify his shocked cabinet colleagues and he was forced to order a probe into what went wrong.

Madhava Reddy's death is a serious loss for Naidu as the chief minister relied heavily on him. The minister was a troubleshooter who was often called upon to sort out internal party strife. The TDP chief found Reddy's genial and conciliatory approach an effective tool in bringing together rival groups to work for the party. The assassinated leader, though a member of the Reddy caste, joined the Kamma-dominated TDP soon after its founding by N.T. Rama Rao in 1982 and never left it. He first won the Bhongir seat in 1985 and has represented the constituency in the state Legislative Assembly ever since. And in spite of the party suffering electoral reverses in Nalgonda district in the last elections, he had emerged a strongman there.

Even as the TDP searches for another leader from the region, Naidu faces the daunting task of checking the militants' activities to avoid sending mixed signals to potential investors in the state. "They convene meetings regularly but the financial and material support we receive is minimal," complains Naidu about the Centre's role in tackling the extremists. "We have our own limitations in providing assistance but appreciate the need for more personnel and weapons,"says Union Home Minister L.K. Advani who rushed to Hyderabad for the funeral along with Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi and a host of TDP MPs.

Naidu realises that getting the Centre to despatch more paramilitary forces to the state is not the solution. He has asked the Union Home Ministry for its support in preventing the extremists from getting their hands on deadly explosives. These include a fiat to manufacturers to make detonators in a manner that they explode three to five seconds after the trigger is pressed. He also wants production only of gelatine sticks with limited shelf-life to be permitted or even the replacement of gelatine with a kind of slurry. "The demand has made been at two or three interstate coordination meetings in the past but the support of the industry is essential if this initiative is to work," confesses H.J. Dora, director-general of police, Andhra Pradesh.

Meeting the PWG's fire with fire appears to be a self-defeating task, reminding one of what an Irish Republican Army member once told the British Police: "You have to be lucky always; we have to be lucky only once." Seen in that light, the solution to the mindless violence lies in weaning away rural youth from militancy. But the all-party political initiative to create jobs and other opportunities for them is still to come.

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