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Naxalism may have more or less ended by Union home minister Amit Shah’s March 31 deadline with the vast majority of Maoist leaders and armed cadre surrendering, but the question of who is accountable for two decades of killings, displacement and impunity remains unanswered.

The last two years have seen intensive killings and extensive inducements aimed at getting Communist Party of India (Maoist) fighters to cross over to the government side. By official estimates, between 2024 and 2026, “a total of 706 Naxalites were killed in encounters, 2,218 were arrested, while 4,839 surrendered.” Barely a hundred or so cadres remain, and even these are either surrendering in dribs or drabs or being encountered, like Rupi, a woman Maoist who was killed in Kanker mid-April 2026. 

The surrendered Maoists are paraded before the media, dutifully saying they will now work within the ambit of the constitution, but it is clear that the constitution is the last thing on anyone’s minds, especially the government’s. The manner in which the Union government and their satellite state governments have gone about defeating the Naxalites in fact signifies the end of accountability. Armed Struggle may come and go in the life of a nation, but the disappearance of respect for the constitution and rule of law by an elected government is far more consequential. 

The lack of accountability is evident in two immediate ways.

First, in the refusal to reckon with the heinous human rights violations of the past two decades.

Second, in the integration of former Maoists into the security forces – first as District Reserve Guard (DRG), and now, we are told, into the regular police. The latter is a militarist and localised version of the BJP’s great white-washing machine, applied to electoral opponents who switch over to the BJP’s ranks. 

Before they joined the security forces, the DRG were ‘wanted Maoists’ with cases and rewards against their names. While the cases are not dropped, in part to hold a sword over their heads, they will now have the power to police others. Had there been a proper re-integration process of surrendered Maoists into the security forces, as has happened in other post-conflict situations around the world, this problem could have been addressed. However, we now have a situation where the police force officially has a significant section of people labelled criminals in its ranks. 

Also read: Acquitted After Six Years’ Jail, Tribal Woman Walks Out Only to Be Taken By Police; No Notice Given

Impunity for human rights abuses 

In the triumphalism that currently prevails, no one is being held responsible for the thousands killed in the last 20 years, mostly by the security forces, but also by the Maoists; the women raped, the hundreds of villages burnt, or the thousands of people displaced in Bastar due to Salwa Judum. These violations are detailed in the depositions collected by constitutional bodies like the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and submitted to the Supreme Court. Judicial enquiries have found that the security personnel killed unarmed civilians. To cite a few examples: 17 villagers were killed in Sarkeguda in 2012, eight were killed in Edesemetta in 2013. But there has been no prosecution of security........

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