Author: Shubhranshu Choudhary

When Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy filed his nomination as the opposition’s candidate for Vice President of India, it reopened a decade-old wound. In 2011, as a Supreme Court judge, Reddy had ruled Salwa Judum unconstitutional. Union Home Minister Amit Shah retorted sharply, claiming that had Reddy not delivered that judgment, the Maoist insurgency in central India would have been crushed by now. The Union home minister’s comment overlooks a deeper, more troubling legacy. Promoted as a “people’s movement” against Maoists, Salwa Judum uprooted entire communities, leaving a humanitarian crisis that continues to haunt Chhattisgarh even after decades. In Gondi language,…

Shubhranshu Choudhary After decades of insurgency, displacement, and deep-rooted mistrust, there is a growing sense that Chhattisgarh’s Maoist chapter is nearing its end. The killing of Maoist chief Nambala Kesava Rao last month, followed closely by the retreat of his deputy, Venugopal, from Bastar, marks not only a significant strategic win for the government but also a potential turning point for the region’s embattled tribal communities–particularly those living in the dense forests of Bastar. The Maoist movement, once a formidable insurgency entrenched in the dense jungles of Dandakaranya — with Bastar as its epicentre — is now in visible decline.…