Abduction: Maoists caught on the wrong foot?

BHUBANESWAR: The State Organisation Committee of CPI (Maoist) seems to be fishing in troubled waters over the abduction of Italian nationals.Kidnapping government officials was different, abducting foreign nationals could amount to ‘terrorism’, a tag the rebel group will not like to be associated with.Apprehensive that the kidnapping could leave the party isolated internationally, insiders say, Sabyasachi Panda, secretary of the State Organisation Committee, may have been wary of the repercussions. It is unlikely that the outfit’s Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh units will support the kidnap of two foreigners, that too on flimsy grounds.As it is, Panda seems to be out of favour with the Central Committee and the current event could further upset all equations. “That is the reason why attempts are made to interject the names of senior politburo members to act as interlocutors since that will give the event an all-India image while creating a favourable ground for Panda too,” sources explain.On Wednesday, one of the interlocutors Dandapani Mohanty proposed that the Government should accept any of the three - Kobad Ghandy, Amit Bagchi and Narayan Sanyal - as the third mediator. Did the names come from the Maoists? Mohanty was at pains to explain who proposed the names. “I have information that these names are wanted but I cannot disclose where I got them from,” he said.Previously, Panda has always made it a point to send audio statements to name the mediators but on Wednesday, he sent none.The State unit’s desperation could be gauged from the fact that it unilaterally announced a ceasefire on Monday. Besides, as part of its demand, it wanted all combing operations to come to an end in Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada and Kandhamal, the four districts where Panda holds sway.With Government lobbing the ball back into the Maoists’ court, the negotiation process seems to have frozen without no way forward.The arrival of BD Sharma, the second mediator, on Thursday, will be crucial to the whole process now.