The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), apparently, never tires of finding an ever newer classification to present a much diminished perception of the intensity and spread of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), also known in India as Maoists, or Naxalites.

In this latest attempt, based on the information provided by his officials, the Home Minister, while replying to a supplementary to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of India's Parliament, on March 19, 2008, declared that 'a mere 14,000 villages out of a total of 650,000 villages are Maoist affected, which accounts for just two per cent of the total number of villages in the country'.

Indeed, it is intriguing why mention was not made of the number of towns that are Maoist affected, and their percentage of the total number of towns and cities in the country. The omission was, perhaps, made because no violent activities were reported from towns and cities. Nevertheless, it is, by now, well known that the rebels use towns and cities for rest, recreation and recuperation, as well as for logistics support.

If the Home Minister were to ask his officers to collect statistics of the number of affected towns and cities as a percentage of the total number of towns and cities in the country, it is quite possible that they would come up with a figure corresponding to the 100th decimal point!

It is an altogether different issue that the Maoists have a certain 'urban presence', and have devised an action plan to build a strong and vibrant 'urban movement'. In 2007 alone, three very important and top-ranking leaders of the apex and all-powerful Central Committee (CC), and the Central Military Commission (CMC) were caught in towns/cities –– Malla Raji Reddy in Kerala, Sridhar Krishnan Srinivasan alias Vishnu in Mumbai and Misir Besra alias Bhaskar alias Sunirmal in Jharkhand.

In 2008, the West Bengal State Committee Secretary of the rebels, Somen, alias Sumanand alias Suman, was arrested in Kolkatta, barely three weeks ago, on February 24. In fact, it is believed that Somen is the head of the five-member Urban Sub Committee (USCO) that was set-up by the CC, in January 2007, to review the Urban Perspective Plan –– which is some kind of a blue print to launch and spearhead the urban movement –– and make recommendations for the way ahead.

The MHA, it appears, is of the view that, as long as statistics present a 'rosy picture', it does not really matter if the Maoists run an elaborate logistics network stretching across towns and villages in various States. Thus, one should merely turn a blind eye to the unearthing of an arms-making-cum-R&D unit of the Maoists in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, on January 10, 2007; in fact, among others, detailed drawings of cross-sections of rocket launchers and 25 books on weapons, including rocket launchers, were recovered during the raid. Then, on January 12, 2007, another arms-making unit was busted in Rourkela, Orissa. A year earlier, raids in Andhra Pradesh, in September 2006, led to the unearthing of an elaborate pan-India network –– that was involved in manufacturing empty rocket shells and knocked-down kits of rocket launchers –– which originated in the Ambattur industrial estate, a suburb of the southern Indian metropolis of Chennai.

For long, the MHA maintained and disseminated statistics of number of affected districts. At the time the UPA came to power in 2004, the common perception was that 53 districts in nine Sates were Maoist affected. In fact, consistently, the predecessor NDA government was revealing just the number of highly affected districts, and the figure 53 corresponded to this.

However, breaking from practice, in early 2005 the Government informed Parliament that a total of 126 districts in 12 States were Naxalite affected; of these 76 districts in nine States were said to be badly (highly) affected. The 126 districts included highly affected, moderately affected, marginally affected and targeted districts. Thus, suddenly, the expanse of the Maoists' presence seemed huge. This created quite a flutter. Ever since, the MHA has been making tireless efforts to retrieve lost ground, and present a diminished view of rebel-presence and influence.

As part of its efforts to address the Maoist issue, the MHA has an initiative known as "Public Perception Management". The objective of this exercise is to create antipathy among the people towards the rebels, through highlighting the latter's misdeeds, mistakes and macabre violence. Instead, this exercise has rather degenerated into 'managing the people's perception' of the Maoist problem through a 'clever concealing of facts' and 'playing with numbers'.

Thus, in 2006, in the customary Annual Report of the MHA presented to Parliament, and in the "Status Paper on the Naxal Problem" –– in which the MHA sprang a surprise on the nation by unveiling the Centre's Naxalite Policy –– that was distributed to Members of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House, on March 13, the MHA introduced this "new" classification of number of police stations. It contended that a mere 509 police stations out of a total of 8695 police stations in 12 States reported Maoist violence. This would account for 5.85 per cent of the total number of police stations in those 12 States.

However, two points need to be carefully noted here. One, the MHA statistics relate to the number of police stations from which Maoist violence was reported, and not the number of police stations in which Maoist presence has been noticed. Two, if one were to consider the 509 police stations as a percentage of the total number of police stations in the country –– 12,476 –– then the figure would be different, and lower. Thus, in its Annual Report for 2006-2007, the MHA noted: "Of the total 12,476 police stations in the country, naxal violence has been reported during the year 2006 from 395 police stations…" This would give the impression that four per cent of the police stations are problematic.

Moreover, the Home Minister also said in his reply on March 19, 2008 that 300 police stations out of a total of over 14,000 country-wide were Maoist affected. According to this figure, 2.14 cent of the police stations countrywide are affected, presently.

By merely changing the denominator from total number of police stations in affected States to the total number of police stations across the country the percentage figure just dips!

As it were, in their latest endeavour to 'not exaggerate and create fear psychosis among the people', and to assure us that we are safe and secure, MHA officials seem to have prompted the Home Minister to say on, March 19, 2008, that 'the Naxalite problem is confined to only two per cent of the country's 650,000 villages'. To further assure us, it was added that 'the number of Naxal violence related incidents at 700 accounts for a mere 1.1 per cent of the total extremist related incidents in the country'.

Perhaps, there could be a self-imposed moratorium on indulging in self deception, especially after daring raids such as Nayagarh, in Orissa, in February 2008!