“Where are you, son? Please come home. We’ll earn a living and stay here” — these were the words of Punji Madvi, who made an appeal on camera to her son, Madvi Hidma, one of the top leaders of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the chief of its Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee.
Punji’s appeal came as a result of the Chhattisgarh government’s initiative to reach out to the families of Maoists. The state’s Home Minister, Vijay Sharma, on Monday visited Punji at the village of Puvarti in Sukma district. Under heavy security cover, he greeted residents of the village and took stock of development activities.
With folded hands, the minister was seen requesting Punji and Singe, the mother of Hidma’s associate Barse Deva, to appeal to their sons to quit the armed struggle and lead a normal life.
Since 2024, in line with the March 2026 deadline set by Union Home Minister Amit Shah for eradicating Left Wing Extremism (LWE), security forces have stepped up operations against Maoists. More than 470 Maoists, including the party’s general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, have been gunned down in this period. Recent months have also seen the surrender of hundreds of Maoists, including Politburo member Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu, who was considered the ideological head of the party.
However, intelligence officials say there is still a section of Maoists who are intend on continuing the “armed struggle”, and Hidma is believed to be one of them.
Hidma once led Battalion 1 of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), which is considered the most formidable force of the Maoists. Hidma’s associate Barse Deva is now in charge of Battalion 1 while Hidma was promoted to a more senior position in the banned party.
On Monday, minister Sharma had lunch with the residents of Puvarti village, and on his request, the mothers of both Hidma and Deva appealed to their sons to lay down arms.
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Hidma’s mother Punji said in a video, addressing her son, “If you won’t come, what am I supposed to do? If you were nearby, I would have even searched for you in the jungle. What else should I say, son? Just come back.”
Singe, Deva’s mother, said, “I told him, ‘Don’t go, we will earn a living and survive right here at home’, but he still left. I told him, ‘We will earn and live at home. There is no one to do the farming and manual labour at home’, yet he still went. What are we going to do? It would be better if he came home, surrendered, and then earned a living and ate here at home.”
