‘Quit forest life because Reds no longer have an ideology’

A bridge in Odisha ’s Maoist-affected Malkangiri district is changing lives. Inaugurated on July 26, the Gurupriya Bridge has not only re-connected 151 villages that were cut off from mainland Malkangiri for 50 years due to a hydel project, it also helped a young Maoist couple walk over to the mainstream.Waga Urmami and his 20-year-old wife Mude Madhi admit that a permanent security camp set up in Jantapai to protect the bridge, along with enhanced combing operations ahead of its inauguration, prompted them to give up arms on July 29.Urmami, alias Mukesh, and Madhi, alias Mesi, carried a combined cash reward of Rs 5 lakh on their heads. Urmami, 26, was wanted by the police for his involvement in at least 25 offences, including seven murder and attempt to murder cases, while his wife was on their list for her participation in 15 attacks, including eight murders. Now, they are trying to adjust to life outside the Maoist camp, and thinking about their days in the forest that was their home for the last 10 years.“Life in the forest was miserable. I wasted 10 valuable years with the false notion that I was working for the poor,” says Urmami, former area committee member of the Malkangiri-Koraput- Visakhapatnam Border committee of the CPI (Maoist).Recalling how he joined the party in 2008, Urmami says, “Maoists would frequently visit our village of Marigetta. After their repeated appeals, I joined the CPI (Maoist).”Urmami comes from a family of farmers and is the second of four brothers and two sisters. He was only 16 when he joined the party’s Kalimela local guerrilla squad (LGS). He had never been inside a school and had little to tie him to the village.Life changed in other ways as well; he learned how to read the Odia alphabet in the Kalimela camp. Urmami served the Kalimela LGS for nearly eight years. “Camp life was hard. We would wake up at 4 in the morning. Rarely did we stay in one place for more than a day,” he recalls. The Maoists divided their time between the villages and the forest. “The villagers could not refuse us food and shelter,” he adds.Urmami was transferred to the MKVB committee in the cut-off area in 2016. As he gained experience as a guerrilla, his standing within the outfit rose. He became an ACM and his weapon changed to an SLR, and then an INSAS rifle .“Instructions about an attack would come from the top. We only executed them,” he says. After each operation, the cadres were asked to assemble at the camp site and scan the newspapers for the reactions of the government and police, he says.The hard life in the jungles did offer one consolation to the Maoist fighter — companionship, which later deepened into love. Urmami knew Madhi back from Kalimela. They drew closer when she was transferred to the MKVB committee in July 2017.“We were in the same group of 13 Maoists in the MKVB committee. I fell in love with him and accepted his proposal of marriage,” says Madhi. She had joined the rebels when she was only 15. Known for her organisational skills, Madhi played a key role in spreading the outfit’s ideology among villagers.Things changed for the Maoists after the Ramaguda encounter on October 24, 2016, in which around 30 cadres were killed. “Our entire organisation was demoralised,” she says.The lack of a steady income was one of the reasons that prompted them to surrender. “We were never paid for our work. We got free clothes and food and I would get between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 to conduct village meetings,” says Urmami. “The party no longer has an ideology. Hence, we decided to quit the life of the forest,” Madhi cuts in.“We wanted to surrender for months, but had to find the right opportunity,” says Madhi. “We told our comrades that we were going to the village for a few days. As we had been with the organisation for a long time, no one doubted us,” she says.Urmami wants to return to Marigetta with Madhi and till his family land. When asked about their expectations from the government, they pause before saying, “We want dignity and the chance to live respectably again.”