Maoists meet after 36 years, Kashmir to Manipur on agenda

By Shafi Rahman
New Delhi, February 21, 2007: Giving the Union Home Ministry a rude shock, the banned Maoists, who fight a low-level war with Indian state along "red corridor" down a swathe of central India from the border with Nepal in the north to Karnataka in the south, have hosted their 9th party congress at the "liberated zones" along Jharkhand-Bihar border with a call to extend support for secessionist struggles ranging from Kashmir to Manipur.
The month-long Unity Congress, held after a period of 36 years since the 8th Congress in 1970 and first to be held after merger of the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC) and the People's War Group in 2004, was attended by 100 delgates from 16 states including activists of the fraternal Maoist parties from Nepal , Philippines and Bengladesh.
While vowing to fight the SEZs coming up in different parts of the country, the CPI (Maoist) Congress also supported the demand for pardon of Afzal Guru, convicted in parliament attack case, as well as for formation of separate states of Telengana and Vidarbha. The Congress also exhorted its cadre to use every possible means to free its detained activists by organising jailbreaks, apart from using the constitutional means.
"We should support "just struggles" of nationalities and sub-nationalities that demand a separate state for their development. Kashmiris and various nationalities of North East such as Assamese, Nagas, Manipuris and Tripuris have been long since waging armed struggle against the Indian Government for their right to self-determination, including the right to secede from the so-called Union of India," Muppala Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathi, who was re-elected as general secretary, told the delegates who attended the Congress which concluded on February 3.
Focussing on Kashmir Pproblem, he said: "The conflict between Indian forces and Kashmiris, which has continued unabated, has generated fresh mass resentment in the wake of the Centre's designs to hang Afzal Guru. The Kashmiri people, along with the enlightened democratic sections all over India, have raised the just demand to desist from hanging the innocent Afzal Guru.
The Congress decided to form organizations, "such as 'Committee to Release Prisoners' along with intellectuals, democracy-lovers and members of the families of imprisoned comrades, in solidarity with prisoners' struggles and to lend them strength. "In this direction efforts are already underway," the general secretary said.
According to credential committee report of the Congress top six activists in Andhra Pradesh and 26 in Tamil Nadu are detained under POTA, and 16 in Karnataka, and about 25 comrades in North Chhattisgarh have been languishing in jails.
"With support from the masses, we had carried out historic actions such as the Jehanabad and R Udaigiri Jailbreaks. The Congress calls upon the entire Party ranks and the mass organization rank and file to prepare in this direction and educate the masses," Ganapathi told delegates.
The Congress, upbeat with inroads it made in organizing dalit protests and protests against SEZs, resolved to further strengthen people's army, deepen the mass base of the party.
Recognising role of the caste in class revolution, the Congress made significant additions to the party documents by pin-pointing of the specific character of Indian feudalism/semi-feudalism as being deeply interwoven with the caste system and brahmanical ideology.
The congress reaffirmed the general line of the new democratic revolution with agrarian revolution as its axis and protracted people's war as the path of Indian revolution that had first come into the agenda with the Naxalbari upsurge.
The Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War (also known as the People's War Group or PWG) merged to form a new entity, the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) on September 21, 2004.

Then the lantern dulled its deep red glow

Amar Bari, Tomar Bari,
Naxalbari, Naxalbari.
My home, your home,
Naxalbari,Naxalbari.


Naxalbari (West Bengal): Welcome to poll-bound Naxalbari, home to the Revolution, tucked in the history and blue hills of the eastern rim. After 29 years of the Left rule, the CPM is at home in Naxalbari.
At Phansidewa constituency, which includes mostly Naxalbari, only the CPM has finalised its candidate. Three-time MLA Prakash Minjh has been dropped from Phansidewa. Choton Kisku, the saha-sabhadhipati of Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad and an educated tribal leader, will be contesting in place of Minjh.
Of 18 panchayaths, 13 are run by the CPM and the rest by Congress and Trinamool in Naxalbari, which shot to fame with peasant revolt in 1967. Claiming many lives and adding a desi word to Marxist lexicon, Naxalbari send waves of hope, scare, strength and doubt, depending on which side of the fence one sat on.
The movement, hailed by Communist China's People's Daily' as Spring Thunder over India, was later poltically and physically lynched by the CPM and troubles within. "Call us revisionists or reactionaries, if you like. But we have touched lives of the people here. Minimum wage levels have been increased from 1977 level from Rs 14 to Rs 85. Naxalbari has four higher secondary schools and a college. Land reforms have been implemented to fullest extent. Panchayath has even constructed roads in private estates to benefit tea workers. We have defeated Communist adventurists with our commitment to people's development," claims Gautam Bose, the CPM Naxalbari area secretary.
"Last year we created 10,000 fresh employment in tea gardens in consultation with the management," says Bose sitting under watchful eyes of Lenin and Stalin hung on the walls of the area committee office.
Two kilometers away, at Sebdella in Naxalbari, sits Kanu Sanyal under another set of Lenin-Stalin photographs, wearing cotton pants and 7'O clock shadow. "Farmers fall for immediate benefits. Larger issues still remain unfulfilled. Peasants are given agricultural loans by the Government and are being dragged into debt-traps," says Sanyal, one of the key leaders of the Naxalbari movement along with Charu Majumdar.
"Naxalbari peasants uprising was a remarkable armed struggle. Now everyone is branding themselves as Naxalites and indulges in individual acts of violence," says sanyal. Sanyal's party, the CPI (ML), is yet to announce candidates for the fourth round of polls in the area.
But the road to revolution has hit many crossroads. "Sanyal has diluted the ideals of Naxalbari movement by joining electoral politics. Our democracy is false. After British regime, a new set of masters have taken over us. Only a blood-wet revolution could save us," says Pavan Singh, an activist owing allegiance to CPI (ML) Mahadeb Mukherjee group. Singh's mother Dhaneswari Devi was killed at Prasadjote firing during the uprising.
He regularly keeps vigils at busts of Charu Majumdar, Stalin, Lenin and Stalin at the venue of firing. "The CPM activists once tried to destroy the busts. Since then we keep a vigil on it," says Singh.
Onil Sonya, a farmer living next to the firing venue, has already pledged his vote for the CPM. "The party has given a piece of land and arranged me an agricultural loan," he says.
Singh has also decided on what to do on voting day. "I will boycott the elections as per our party's call. On the polling day I will go to the hills and graze my cows. It will be much useful than going to polling booth," says Singh as he spits in anger. Singh's words drown in heavy downpour outside.