NEW DELHI: The action against activists arrested by Maharashtra police on Tuesday relating to Elgar Parishad, followed by Bhima Koregaon violence, has not come overnight as a stage for the same was set by erstwhile UPA government.

Defending the action, ministry of home affairs sources said that UPA government had come out with a report in December 2012 which identified 128 organisations having links with or acting as fronts for CPI (Maoists) and had recommended action against these organisations.

Seven out of 10 activists – Varavara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Mahesh Raut - arrested by Maharashtra police since June 6 this year belong to organisations identified by the previous government, said a source.

Gautam Navlakha (leader of People’s Union of Democratic Rights), Varavara Rao (president of Revolutionary Democratic Front), Bhardwaj (vice president of Indian Association of People’s Lawyers), Ferreira and Gonsalves ((former member and secretary respectively of Maharashtra State Committee of CPI Maoist), were arrested on Tuesday while Gadling (general secretary of Indian Association of People’s Lawyers), Rona Wilson (Public Relation Secretary of Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners), Raut (State Convener of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan), Shoma Sen (executive member of Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights) and Sudhir Dhawale (Republican Panthers) were arrested on June 6.

About Rao, officials said he has been arrested several times by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana police in the past while Ferreira and Gonsalves have also been arrested earlier as well by Maharashtra police in 2007 and spent several years in the prison.

Citing the intelligence bureau report from 2012, MHA sources said the bureau had identified that these 128 organisations were propagating the Maoists’ agenda in 16 states including Delhi, Chhattisgarh , Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha , Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu , Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana and Kerala.

The IB report had stated, “the front organisations ensure fusion between overground and underground activities. They are responsible for recruitment of educated youth who go to the field to keep the movement alive and play the role of ideologues”.

These organisations also gather funds, are part of misinformation campaigns and provide legal aid to Maoists, the IB, which comes under the home ministry, had added in 2012.

Sources, citing IB’s analysis, said that these organisations included student unions, youth organisations, lawyers’ groups, workers associations, women organisations, tribal bodies and NGOs, and many of them were working with an objective to infiltrate the cadres of different associations for violence.

“They indulge in distributing pamphlets and other ideology material of CPI (Maoists), holding rallies, and even penetrating into protests,” the MHA officer added.

These activists, a MHA official said, are being investigated for their links with CPI (Maoist), a banned organisation operating with the devious objective of overthrowing democratic order, and the support provided by them to the CPI (Maoist).

“Such individuals cannot escape responsibility for aiding and abetting the violent acts committed by CPI (Maoist) underground cadres,” he said.

“The CPI (Maoist), towards the achievement of its ultimate objective of seizure of political power through protracted peoples war, attaches immense importance to the urban movement which works towards creation of a United Front in support of their movement,” another official said.

The urban movement is the main source for providing leadership and resources to the CPI(Maoist). The responsibility for provision of supplies, technologies, expertise, information and other logistic support is also shouldered by the overground activists in urban centres, the official said.

He added that “urban Naxalism is not a fiction of government’s imagination but a stark reality as Maoists are working towards creating a united front to support their movement”.

