Opinion Shades of red in Lalgarh

I had traveled from Thiruvananthapuram to Kolkata to meet CPI(M-L) leader Charu Majumdar in 1970.

July 1, 2009 04:03 PM IST First published on: Jul 1, 2009 at 04:03 PM IST

I had traveled from Thiruvananthapuram to Kolkata to meet CPI(M-L) leader Charu Majumdar in 1970. Majumdar was then the West Bengal polices most wanted man and my task was to report the state of the party in Kerala to him. I met him in a shelter in a crowded Kolkata neighbourhood.

I could see in Kolkata the intensity of the turmoil and the unrest among students and the youth. Hundreds of them from the city had gone to the villages to be with the poor and landless peasants following Majumdars call. Those were the vibrant days of the Naxalite movement which started in 1967 in the Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling as a militant mass movement of the poor and the landless. The movement had started to spread. But within two-three years the movement turned into a terrorist movement,annihilating the class enemies.

Even though the party got split into many groups mainly after the death of Majumdar in police custody in July 1972 and collapsed,a considerable section of the activists continued different socio-political activities in different parts,in towns and villages,of West Bengal. A good number of them continued their critical approach towards CPM politics.

That became a headache for the CPM. After 1977,when the CPM established its domination through government,it suppressed former Naxalites who were politically active,using undemocratic methods.

In 1985,when I was the All India Secretary of the Central Reorganisation Committee,CPI(M-L),we had held our All-India plenary in a village in Midnapore. I was really shocked to see the backwardness of Bengals villages. When compared with Keralas villages,they were extremely backwardeconomically,socially and politically. Even after eight years of Left rule there was no manifest progress in the lives of the people.

During the last 33 years of Left rule in West Bengal,local cadres of the CPM got transformed into a new ruling class with enormous and unquestionable power in their hands. The people realised that their old comrades have become their new enemies. It is quite possible that the former Naxalites and democratised Naxalites might have played an important role in enhancing this realisation. When we look at the Maoist problem in West Bengal,we should not overlook this historical context.

From among the old Naxalites,only a very small minority might have joined or maintained contacts with the new class of militarised Maoists. The majority of the old Naxalites definitely played a role in the struggles and campaigns like Nandigram. So their political connection with the Trinamool Congress and others is quite apparent and this is nothing intriguing. The Maoists,too,have claimed that they had a role in Nandigram. Its possible,but a minor role. Lalgarh,however,seems to be a major entry point in Bengal for the Maoists who,in recent years,have been militarily organising in the eastern states.

Two years ago,the Maoists central leadership had evaluated and admitted openly that they were not able to attract cadres from the youth and the working class as was possible earlier. That situation has not changed much even now. In states such as Andhra Pradesh,Chhattisgarh,Orissa,Jarkhand,Bihar and now West Bengal,where they are able to exhibit their military presence through armed actions,they are unable to expand their influence among the people except in pockets of tribals or the most backward areas of these states.

They are trying to cover up for this political failure through well-organised military actions. And they have been successful as well. The Prime Minister said that Maoist terrorism has been one of the major challenges the country is facing.

Indian Maoists can never forget Naxalbari and West Bengal from where the movement originated. The present-day Maoists,the CPI (Maoist),was formed as a result of a merger between the Peoples War based in Andhra and the MCC based in Bihar. Both these organisations had no solid base in Bengal. So it is quite natural for them to think about building a base there and this is an opportune time.

Since the Indian Maoists military strategy is planned and executed at the all-India level,the Centres move to impose a nationwide ban is a correct move. Terrorism must be dealt with an iron hand. No doubt about it. But it must be done within the legal framework of the democratic system and loopholes in the system must be plugged. Banning a political organisation,whether it is terrorist or not,I believe,does not conform to the political atmosphere of a democratic system. The CPM central leaderships opposition to the ban,though,is not a principled one. Even the CPMs modified programme upholds the goal of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat the same goal of the Maoists. The opposition to the ban is aimed at projecting the CPMs image as defenders of democracy something which they forgot in the three decades of rule in West Bengal.

The writer was a CPI (M-L) leader and a Marxist ideologue