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Journalism of Courage
THERE are two Andhras. One is moored somewhere in Hyderabad, the new toast of corporate India. The other in the wilderness of Telengana and the dry land of Rayalaseema. They rarely meet. The meeting is often triggered off by the kind of blast that happened on the Tirumala Ghat road last Thursday.
The blast has brought the naxalites back into the limelight. Now, in Naiduland, Mr Naxalite or Comrade Naxalite will infiltrate the debate for sometime. Israel and agriculture will make way for Israel and terror. Someone will talk of addressing the root causes of the violence.
The same old story. Ever since a small groups of peasants in a village in north Bengal took on the landlords in May 1967. Naxalbari, until then a nondescript village, spawned a movement. It aimed high. Utopia was a possibility. Rhetoric reigned in the air. Power flowed from the barrel of the gun. Chairman Mao was our own chairman. A generation celebrated life with slogans. The body count did not matter. They reflected the times. It was the globalisation of revolution.
Rhetoric never got translated into revolution. The villages never captured the city. Idealism wilted under the onslaught of state repression. Some sought the solution in the Book. Some found the solution in martyrdom. The movement dissipated into hundreds of groups. At least one wish of Chairman Mao was fulfilled 8212; a hundred flowers had bloomed.
Can the movement anymore be clubbed under one umbrella? Comrade Naxalite wears different hats in different places. In Jharkhand, he is organising the tribals; in Bihar, he is an active participant in the caste carnival; in Kerala, he targets the colas. They share the basic tenets of ideology. Some have discovered democracy. Some like Kondapalli Seetharamiah, one of the founders of People8217;s War Group, opt out of it when past their prime. Some remain wedded to terror. Where politics ends and terror begins is anybody8217;s guess.
Where is it all headed? Nowhere is the easy answer. But every attempt to crush Comrade Naxalite has been only partially successful. Like Mahasweta Devi8217;s Boshoi Tudu, he reappears elsewhere. He owes his existence to the System. He may speak a dead language, but the slogans still find takers. Wherever economic and social disparities are not addressed, he is seen as an option. Often, an attractive option. The challenge to him is not the Police State, but the language of Democracy. Wherever that has happened, Comrade Naxalite has turned away from terror tactics. Can Naidu do the same? Or will he invest only in Nirtal, the Israeli security firm?
