From Guns to Coffee Cups: CM Vishnu Deo Sai Inaugurates Bastar’s Ex-Maoist-Run ‘Pandum Café’

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Monday personally inaugurated ‘Pandum Café’ at the heart of Jagdalpur, the administrative capital of Bastar division, a 200-seater establishment entirely staffed and managed by more than twenty former Maoist cadres who once waged war against the state and by young survivors whose families were wiped out by Naxal violence, turning a former epicentre of terror into a vibrant hub of reconciliation and economic rebirth.

The café is the brainchild of Bastar Range IG Sundarraj Pattlingam and District Collector Vijay Dayaram K, executed under the state’s flagship ‘Niyad Nellanar’ (Your Good Village) rehabilitation scheme; every employee—from the head barista who once commanded a dalam platoon to the cashier whose brother was killed by Maoists—has completed a rigorous three-month residential training programme at Raipur’s Institute of Hotel Management covering everything from latte art and hygiene certification to customer psychology and basic accounting, ensuring professional standards rival any urban chain.

Speaking to a packed audience that included surrendered cadres in crisp new uniforms and teary-eyed victims’ families, CM Sai declared Pandum Café “the most beautiful symbol of victory in Bastar—not over people, but over the ideology of violence,” adding that when former guerrillas serve coffee to CRPF jawans and local tribals under the same roof without fear or hatred, it proves that development, dignity, and dialogue are far more powerful weapons than bullets ever were.

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The name ‘Pandum’ is drawn from the Gondi word for the traditional tribal rest shelters found under ancient mahua trees, while its evocative tagline “Where every cup tells a story” is printed on every menu; each beverage—whether the signature ‘Bastar Black’ brewed from local organic beans or the ‘Peace Latte’ topped with a heart-shaped foam—comes with a small card narrating the real-life journey of the staff member who prepared it, turning every order into a quiet lesson in forgiveness and human resilience.

Among the proud inaugural team is 28-year-old ‘Raju’ (name changed), once a divisional committee member with a ₹25-lakh bounty who surrendered in 2024 carrying an INSAS rifle, now beaming as he pulls perfect espresso shots, and 22-year-old Madkam Hidme who lost her parents to a 2019 IED blast but today trains others in baking traditional red-ant chutney brownies; as Chief Minister Sai took the first ceremonial sip and posed for photographs with the entire staff, the message rang clear across the Red Corridor—Bastar is writing a new chapter, one coffee cup at a time.

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