Absent state in the Red Republic

The irony, perhaps, would not have impressed Che Guevara. A band of CPI (Maoist) guerrillas, the self- proclaimed inheritor of his legacy, took hostage a man, who, inspired by the iconic revolutionary figure, worked hard to give a marginalised population a life worth living. Stirred by Che’s best seller ‘Memoir', the Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon moved village after village on his motorcycle in Naxal-strongholds compromising his security, but determined to realise his dream to change the life of the poor tribals. The Naxals, fearing erosion of their authority, curtailed his dream by holding him captive.

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