Kishenji Supports Demands for Telangana, Gorkhaland states

The central government recently announced that Telangana in Andhra Pradesh would become a new state, but it is beginning to backtrack. The Telangana area has a rich history of revolutionary struggle, going back to the early 1950s and up to the present.  The CPI (Maoist) and its predecessor organization in Andhra Pradesh, the CPI ML (People’s War), have historically supported this demand, and is now supporting the demand for Gorkhaland in far northern West Bengal, where there is a large Nepali-speaking population.

Hyderabad is part of Telangana: Kishenji

Indian Express, December 14, 2009

Maoist leader Kishenji has said Hyderabad is an integral part of the Telangana region and the city should be made the capital of the new state when it comes into being.  “Hyderabad is a part of Telangana and will stay so. There is no question of disassociating Hyderabad from Telangana,”

Kishenji, who hails from the region, which has a substantial Naxal presence, said over phone from an undisclosed location on Saturday evening. Asked why there was so much controversy over Hyderabad, Kishenji said: “It is because of some retired and serving bureaucrats who own huge chunks of land in the Greater Hyderabad region.” “Nearly 40,000 acres of land, a large portion of which have vineyards, are in the hands of some retired and present bureaucrats,” Kishenji said.

The Maoist leader expressed support for the creation of Telangana and accused the Congress of “depriving” people of the region of their legitimate rights by “backtracking” from its move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.

Maoists Declare Four New States in Nepal

Tharu activists demonstrate for a separate state in the Terai

Nepal News, December 13, 2009

Maoist defiance continues, declares two more states

The Unified CPN (Maoist) on Sunday declared Seti-Mahakali and Tharuwan autonomous states. [The Tharus are Nepal’s fourth largest indigenous group.They occupy Nepal’s lowland region with nearly seven per cent of the population.]

Despite the national and international concerns over their move, the two autonomous states were declared as part of the former rebel party’s third round of protests and comes two days after the party declared Kochila and Limbuwan autonomous states in eastern Nepal.

The Maoists declared five districts in western Terai as Tharuwan autonomous state amidst a huge gathering of party cadres and supporters in Nepalgunj of Banke district. Maoist party secretary C.P Gajurel was among the senior party members who addressed the programme.

Bhattarai on the Political Stalemate in Nepal

Nepali Times, December 11, 2009

Maoist vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai—a man in a hurry

Hardliners in each of the three big parties are making it more difficult for the top leadership to find a compromise, power-sharing formula, prolonging the stalemate and threatening the peace process. This could be why senior leaders all sounded conciliatory after their numerous one-on-one and joint meetings this week, but came out with uncompromising stands the very next day.

“The problem is not between the political parties, it is within the parties themselves,” one senior adviser told Nepali Times. For example, the UML has an almost right-wing faction, while the NC has a leftist fringe that is acceptable to the Maoists.

The Maoists, weakened by serious internal rifts, need an acceptable face-saving way out of their ‘civilian supremacy’ stance. Conservatives in the NC and UML, however, smell blood and don’t want to give the Maoists an easy way out. Although the Kailali incident this week and the vicious Maoist attack on Rukum journalist Tika Bista have sharpened the rhetoric on both sides, the three were said to have edged closer to a formula for an all-party coalition.

Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai (interview below) represents the pragmatic aspect of the Maoist hierarchy, although one wouldn’t guess that from what he has to tell us in an extensive interview this week. His clarification that ethnic autonomous regions are just ‘symbolic’ betrays his party’s need to extricate itself from an issue that is spinning out of the leadership’s control.