A can of worms—critical internal fissures, ideological contradictions, and the growing irrelevance of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)—has been opened in public with the surrender of Mallojula Venugopal Rao aka Abhay aka Bhupati aka Sonu (69), a ‘Politburo’, ‘Central Committee (CC)’, and ‘Central Military Commission (CMC)’ member who served as official ‘spokesperson’ and long-time ideologue of the CPI-Maoist, along with 60 cadres in Maharashtra on October 15 this year.

In particular, the Telangana cadre now stands accused of sabotaging reform, exploiting state leniency, and obstructing peace. Reports indicate that Rao’s interrogation has exposed a pattern within the CPI-Maoist’s Telangana State Committee (TSC), indicating that despite its public posturing against “bourgeois democracy" and the Indian state, TSC is functioning under a tacit ceasefire with the Telangana government, benefiting from state tolerance, while simultaneously undermining peace efforts.

Rao specifically accuses a section of the leadership of becoming “Godi Maoists"—a term he coins to describe those enjoying proximity to state officials while projecting revolutionary purity. These leaders, Rao alleges, oppose developmental schemes such as the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996, Forest Rights Act (FRA), Aadhaar, and solar subsidies—programmes that........

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