http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/amr210308.htmlThe "Maoist" Scareby Analytical Monthly ReviewAnalytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur,West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of MonthlyReview. Its March 2008 issue features the followingeditorial. -- Ed.
The struggle for democratic rights in India, its forward and backward movement, has been continuous from the days of British colonialism to the present. Independence and Emergency, for example, were not qualitative changes. The closest correlation has been with upsurges from below of the impoverished rural andurban masses. In such times the rulers of India slash at democratic rights, and focus on how best toeliminate, whether by co-option, arrest or murder, theemerging leaders of mass protest. Here there hasalways been unanimity among India's rulers, howeverthey might disagree on other matters. "On 19 March1931,when the dates for the executions of BhagatSingh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were announced, HomeSecretary Emerson asked for Gandhi's help to containthe disorder that the government apprehended. 'Gandhipromised to do what he could.'"1Today we are witnessing the sharpest assault ondemocratic rights since Emergency. And as before, thereason is an upsurge from below, in the current casein resistance to the imposition of neoliberalpolicies. During the past few years, an increasingspontaneous movement is being seen all over India --against dispossessing impoverished rural residents inthe interests of private profit such as inKalinganagar and Nandigram or against imposition ofnew anti-worker policies as in Honda Motors and ToyotaMotors, and in Jute-mills of West Bengal. In mostcases initiative is being taken from below, and theaffected people have tried to keep control byrejecting leadership from the established politicalparties, although not always with success. Yetstories of successful resistance spread quickly and,as the strength of mass struggle is recalled after along break, local resistance rapidly develops braveand intelligent, though inexperienced, new leadership.Though this mass upsurge is in but a nascent state,the ruling classes and their representatives are verymuch aware of its strength and are hell-bent to crushthese struggles in any way possible.A primary method now adopted by the rulers of India isto brand as "Maoist" anybody who is involved withthese new types of movements -- whether as journalistor sympathiser or civil/democratic rights activist orpolitical activist of a non-parliamentary group. Thepolitical parties (however bitterly they may beotherwise divided), police, administration and most ofthe mass-media are united in claiming that most of thesympathisers or leaders or activists of these new typeof struggles -- not under the banner of any existingpolitical parties -- are connected with CPI(Maoist),which is engaged in armed struggle. CPI(Maoist) infact does seek to build a new society where there willbe no exploitation, and their work is mostlyconcentrated in the poorest regions of India. Yetthere is much controversy among revolutionaries inIndia regarding the path to achieve agreed ends, andState terror directed purportedly against theCPI(Maoist) affects a far larger community, one inwhich rests much of such hope as exists for a betterfuture for India. The charge of "Maoism" is nowpretextual, a police means of attacking the leadershipof any resistance to neoliberalism from below. Thoughthe CPI(Maoist) is not a banned organisation in manystates, it is becoming commonplace that anybody whomthe police choose to regard as a "Maoist" may bearrested or taken into police custody forinterrogation and deposited in jail under sections 121et seq. of IPC ("Waging, or attempting to wage war, orabetting waging of war, against the Government ofIndia"), and then held without recourse pursuant tothe latest Congress government versions of colonialBlack Laws. Most of these cases go unreported in thecorporate media, yet some of the incidents do getnoticed through different channels and in local media.The following few examples from different states maybe cited:* We wrote in June 2007 "The renownedpublic-spirited paediatrician Dr. Binayak Sen isGeneral Secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties("PUCL"), Chhattisgarh and the Vice-President,National PUCL. He was arrested May 14th, 2007, underthe provisions of the Black Laws (The ChhattisgarhSpecial Public Security Act, 2005 (CSPSA), and theUnlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 as amendedin 2004(along with Section 120-B, 121-A, 124-A ofI.P.C). . . The People's Union for Civil Liberties -Chhattisgarh has demanded enquiry by the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI) in all extra-judicialkillings in Chhattisgarh since 2005. Fake encountersin the past two years have claimed the lives of at aminimum 155 people. In a single fake encounter case atSantoshpur in Bijapur on 31st March, 2007, the StatePolice killed not less than 12 innocent citizens." Dr. Binayak Sen is still in jail. As is universallyknown, "encounter killings" are the murder by policeof the emerging leadership of local mass struggles. The trend in the number of extra-judicial killings,for whose exposure Dr. Sen was jailed, continues torise. Dr. Binayak Sen's persecution has been carriedout by Congress authorities at the center and thelocal BJP, working in smooth co-ordination when itcomes to the attack on democratic rights.* Prashant Rahi, a senior journalist ofUttarakhand, with over 17 years of service to hiscredit, has been reporting on under-representedcommunities and pro-people's movements in the state. Prashant began his journalist career with The HimachalTimes and then later moved to The Statesman. Heparticipated in the Uttarakhand movement, and foughtaggressively for the rehabilitation of Tehri damvictims. He was arrested on 15 December 2007 in thestate capital Dehradun, and held in "secretconfinement" by police for five days. Later on 21December 2007, police officially booked him underSection 121 etc. as a "Maoist commander" and displayedhim as arrested "from the forests of Hanspur Khatta." "He used to raise his voice against police atrocities.He always fought for the people's cause, and finallyfell prey to the police conspiracy. The police appearbent on proving him to be a Maoist commander," hisdaughter Sikha Rahi told IANS.* Roma and Shanta Bhattacharya of the NationalForum for Forest Peoples and Workers (NFFPW) are twohuman rights activists working for the land rights ofwomen, dalits, tribals and other marginalisedcommunities in the Sonebhadra region of the State ofUttar Pradesh. Local police arrested them inRobertsganj on 3 August 2007, along with several otherwomen from the community. This was followed by the 5August 2007 arrest of two Dalit activists working withthem (Lalti Devi and Shyamlal Paswan), and activistMohammed Hanif. The arrests were accompanied withviolence against the activists and villagers. Romaand her fellow activists were arrested whilecampaigning for awareness about the Scheduled Tribesand Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of ForestRights) Act, 2006, under the banner of Kaimur ChhetraMahila Kisan Sangharsh Samity (kcmkss) -- a women-ledorganisation. On July 31, KCMKSSadvanced a slogan "Jojamin sarkari hai, wo jamin hamari hai" (the land thatbelongs to the government is ours), following which,dalits and tribals asserted their rights by plantingtrees in the forest. The community believes that thearrests were a conscious attempt to demoralise theactivists and the members of the local organisations. The region has witnessed violence from authorities incollusion withthe land mafia for a long time. At amedia conference, members of the National Forum ofForest People & Forest Workers said the local policeand administration were falsely implicating tribals asNaxals. Another recent incident may be noted here. When the police team went to arrest a tribal leaderfor his allegedly link with the Maoists in Chandiavillage under the Kalinga Nagar police station 5thFebruary 2008, tribals chased them away. He wasinvolved in the movement against land acquisition. Vistapan Virodhi Jan Manch (VVJM), which has beenspearheading movement in the area since the 2 January,2006 firing in which 14 tribals were killed by policewhile opposing land acquisition for the Tata steelproject, decided to gherao the police station forentering the village. They also decided to restrictmedia movement.* A most ominous event is the recent arrest, bythe police of CPI(M)-led left front government, ofMithu Ghosh, an activist of Sharamik Sangram Committee(SSC) and Krishak Committee (KC), along with a seniorleader of Nandigram movement and his son on 12thFebruary, 2008 from Sonachuda, Nandigram West Bengal. An allegation of Maoist link under section 120B, 121,121A and 153 of IPC was charged. An excerpt from theleaflet published by SSC and KC after the arrest ofMithu Ghosh sets out the facts: "SSC and KC, for thelast thirty years, have been working among the workersand peasants and all the toiling masses to make themconscious and organised for the complete abolition ofall types of exploitation, with the aim ofrevolutionary change of the present social system. Itis true that the declared aim of the CPI(Maoist) isalso the radical change of this exploitative society. But we have continuously opposed the politics ofCPI(Maoist) and its predecessors among left extremistorganisations, insisting that social change is notpossible through the activities of armed activistsdetached from the masses. Only the working class canabolish exploitation from this society forever. Onlythe working class can ensure the spontaneous andactive participation of millions of peasants andagricultural labourers, all the toiling masses, byarousing them for the radical, revolutionary change ofthe society. And to achieve this, the most importantthing is that the working class has to be organisedindependently, has to build their own party whosecontrol will be in the hands of advanced workers. . .. By detaching advanced workers, on the one hand,from the revisionist-reformist politics of solvingproblems through change of government and, on theother hand, from ultra-left politics of changingsociety through the activities of a few armed cadres,we are working to organise the toiling masses on thebasis of class consciousness." SSC is a smallorganisation, yet it leads the union of a big MNC,Hindustan Lever, and (along with some smallerfactories) Garden Reach Ship Builders and EngineersLtd.'s union is also led by SSC. So, SSC and KC (andtheir political history) are not unknown organisationsto police, administration or ruling parties. Still,their activist is arrested with the allegation ofbeing "Maoist" and his bail petition rejected in thelower courts. As Ashok Mitra warned the leadership ofthe CPI(M) in Anandabazar Patrika on November 14,2007, "you shiver at the terror of Maoism, will thatshivering compel you to throw West Bengal into thegutter of fascism?" The attack on Mithu Ghosh is astep into that gutter.* In June 2007 the Karnataka Police released alist (originally meant for intelligence agencies) of19 suspected Naxals, nine organisations and 33suspected Naxal supporters. Activists wereparticularly alarmed with the listing of KadidalShamanna, a farmers' leader from the Malnad region,Rajendra Chenni, a lecturer from Kuvempu University,KL Ashok, secretary of Komu Souharda Vedike (a forumfor communal harmony) and Kalkuli Vittal Hegde wholeads the agitation against the creation of theKudremukh National Park that will displace thousandsof tribals. Shamanna was placed in the list for aspeech he made against the government at a farmers'rally.The list can be expanded but we think our point hasbeen made. As we write we are aware of the outrageousSangh Parivar attack on the CPI(M) central committeeat its Delhi headquarters. The moral is clear, and wehope it is not too late to be learned. The attacks ondemocratic rights and police state tactics endorsedtoday by the CPI(M) against "Maoists" will tomorrow beput more broadly to use by the fascists. As themartyred US revolutionary Malcolm X said of the fateof John F. Kennedy, responsible for the many murdersthat followed on his administration's imperialistaggression against Cuba and Viet Nam, "chickens comehome to roost."1 Quoted from GOI, Intelligence Bureau, Terrorism inIndia 1917-1936, in Suniti Kumar Ghosh, India and theRaj 1919-1947, Sahitya Samsad, 2007, p.94
