How a tribal boy rose to become dreaded Maoist

Rise and fall of Madvi Hidma Commander's death is a decisive blow to the Maoist leadership

- Ritesh Mishra

“Hidma’s terror has ended, peace is returning to Bastar,” Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai wrote on social media on Tuesday and Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj P, said that the death of 50-year-old top Maoist commander marked “one of the most decisive breakthroughs in the history of anti-Naxal operations.”

The two quotes not only highlighted the terror that Hidma, a central figure of the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist) military structure, had on the psyche of residents in Bastar but also summed up the significance of his death on the morale of security forces.

Hidma was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. His wife, Madkam Raje, a long-serving Maoist organiser, and four other cadres were also killed in the encounter in Alluri Sitarama Raju district, close to the Chhattisgarh border, officials said.

A resident of Puvarti, a small village under the Jagargunda police station on the Sukma-Bijapur border, Hidma belonged to the Muriya tribe — a Scheduled Tribe—and had studied till class 5. He was recruited as a Bal Sangham (child) cadre of Maoists in 1991, before being absorbed into various local and area committees as the insurgency expanded its influence across the Dandakaranya region, according to intelligence records.