CPI (Maoist) Sums Up Advances in 2009 and Challenges Ahead

This statement appeared in Maoist Information Bulletin 11, dated October 7, 2009, which is available at Banned Thought.

Advances in the Last One Year

As the unified Party enters its sixth year, the Polit Bureau of the CPI(Maoist) summed up the achievements of the past one year i.e., since 21 September 2008. The following is based on a Party Letter issued by the Polit Bureau of the CPI(Maoist) in the beginning of September, 2009.

Particularly in response to the Central Task of the Party to Build the Base Areas, transforming the guerrilla war into mobile war, and the PLGA into PLA, there have been significant advances on the war front beating back the attempts by the enemy forces to crush the revolutionary struggles. After the historic raid of Nayagarh and the wiping out of 38 Greyhounds in Chitrakonda (Ballimela) Dam near the AP border in the preceding year, the current year has seen a quantum leap in the attacks on the enemy forces. Around 300 security forces have been wiped out in the past one year and there has been further consolidation of the new people’s power, particularly in Dandakaranya. The emerging new democratic power, in the form of the Jantana Sarkars in spite of the vicious attacks by the Salwa Judum-State’s repressive forces has been a great source of inspiration countrywide.

If we look at the past one year we can pinpoint five main achievements:

(i) First, and most important, has been the more successful TCOC (Tactial Counter Offensive) in the current year, in which there have been at least a score of major guerrilla actions and scores of smaller actions. In most of our areas there have been a significant rise in the number of actions and losses inflicted on the enemy. In the past one year our heroic PLGA, people’s militia and revolutionary masses have wiped out more than 300 police, commando and central forces. Even greater number of the enemy forces was injured in our attacks. This is a significant development in the overall development of the people’s war.

Morale Dropping Among Soldiers Deployed in Operation Green Hunt

This article appeared in Maoist Information Bulletin 12, dated October 31, 2009, available at Banned Thought.

Increasing suicides and frustration among the mercenary forces deployed in the guerrilla zones of central and eastern India

The nervousness, the fear, and frustration are writ large on the faces of the poor policemen and jawans belonging to the central forces who are sent by the Sonia-Manmohan-Chidambaram fascist clique to suppress the Maoist movement and the adivasis in central and eastern India. The latest suicide on October 30 by Dhananjay Singh of ASF hailing from Siwan, Bihar, who was deployed in Amabeda police station in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, reflects the mental condition of these helpless pawns in the cruel class war waged for the benefit of a handful of parasitic plunderers like the Tatas, Mittals, Essar, Jindals, POSCO, Vedanta etc. The poorest sections of the society who join the police and other armed forces for their livelihood are systematically dehumanized, brutalized and transformed into killing machines and deployed against their own people.

In the current war being waged by the reactionary rulers against the Maoists and the adivasis, thousands of central forces are sent to the interior areas of central and eastern India to be used as cannon fodder. A considerable number of these central forces are airdropped in the dense jungles and are ordered to fight the Maoists there. Knowing nothing about the terrain and with absolutely no co-operation from the local people, these forces get panicky at the slightest sound in the forest. They open fire at the rustle of leaves and end up shooting down a cow or monkeys on the trees. They live in constant fear of attack by the Maoist guerrillas who had entrenched themselves in the area for over three decades. And one ambush by the Maoists would throw these forces into total confusion. Those who manage to flee after an ambush or encounter with Maoist guerrillas simply do not know where to go; they do not know the terrain, language, and get no co-operation from the local people. There are instances of some jawans getting lost in the wilderness of the jungle. Notwithstanding the training in jungle warfare imparted by the Indian Army officers, which they feel is of little help in a hostile environment, nervousness stalks these soldiers.

Sanhati: A Year of Struggle in Lalgarh

This article was published on the Sanhati website on January 11, 2010.

A Year of Lalgarh

Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

Lalgarh – the name resonates in the hearts and minds of struggling people all over India: adivasis and dalits, farmers and fisherfolk, workers and students. In West Bengal it has taken its place along with Singur and Nandigram in songs and slogans of resolve and resistance. Wherever people are fighting for their livelihoods and their dignity, resisting the onslaught of state and capital, Lalgarh now provides inspiration and courage. Most importantly, for the long-oppressed adivasis, Lalgarh has already entered the annals of legendary struggles of the likes of the santhal “hul” led by Sidhu and Kanhu, and the historic rebellions led by the likes of Birsha Munda, Tilka Majhi and Chand Bhairab.

It has been just over a year since the unprecedented uprising of the adivasi people took place in Lalgarh, triggered by the brutal police raids in the wake of the land mine attack on chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s convoy. It is a good time to look back on this year, and to learn our lessons from Lalgarh.

In the last one year the movement has gone through many ups and downs, has faced brutal oppression by the state and the terror apparatus of the ruling party, culminating in the entry of the joint police and paramilitary forces of the state and the central governments (referred to as the “joint forces”) in the middle of June, 2009, and the arrest of its main spokesperson, Chatradhar Mahato. It has been the subject of both the wonder and vilification of the corporate media, and has elicited varied responses from civil society. However, all this has not dampened the resolve and the courage of the struggling people of Lalgarh, who have stood up in the face of oppression, and will not be subdued. Even today, when the joint paramilitary forces have closed in on Lalgarh and each day brings stories of atrocities, of firing on farmers tilling their fields, of arrests of children playing cricket, of looting and pillaging of villages and poisoning of wells, the people of Lalgarh are marching out in larger and larger numbers to assert their rights and to resist this onslaught.