In Bihar even Maoists are plagued by casteism India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Rebels from a Maoist group in Bihar recently quit and joined another group after they alleged that the former group had high caste ideology. Defected activists of the Communist Party India (Maoist), which operates in and around Bihar and Jharkhand, allege that the group had drifted away from communist ideology and they never worked for the betterment of farmers and peasants. Caste issues had created a rift among the cadres, which prompted the activists to defect to the Sashastra People's Morcha (Armed People's Front), another Maoist group. "We have come out to fight against the CPI (Maoist). They have caste issues inside the group. They are also against the locals hence we want to support us in return," said Paramjeet, a commander of the front. However, the (Maoist) said that many of the renegades lacked the revolutionary spirit. "These men are not revolutionaries and that's the reason they keep commenting like this. They get drifted to other parties and carry out such incidents," said Advani, a leader of the CPI (Maoist). Police are apprehensive that the law and order situation in the region could worsen if the new group starts revenge killing, inviting retaliation after the split. Maoists have formally been labelled as a terrorist group by central government, which gives security forces more enforcement powers.