Isolate ‘Maoists’ Politically for Enduring Peace in Jangal Mahal

By Nilotpal Basu 

ULTIMATELY, the truth has come out. Not that it was not known;  but now that it has come straight from the, so to say, horse’s mouth;  the chief minister of West Bengal and the Trinamool Congress supremo has eventually lashed out at the ‘Maoists’ for their heinous crime of engineering the Ganeshwari Express tragedy  which took the toll of 148 innocent lives. Contrary to what she has been claiming all this while that the CPI(M) and the Left was responsible for the tragedy to defame her and the Railway ministry – she has ultimately conceded that it was clearly the handiwork of the ‘Maoists’. 

What is the provocation for this belated ‘discovery’? Two activists of the Trinamool Congress had been gunned down by a ‘Maoist’ squad in a hamlet on the foothills of Ajodhya in Purulia district – an integral part of the jangal mahal area in West Bengal which continues to remain infested by ‘Maoist’ activity. There is no doubt that these were murders most vile and all right thinking people would condemn these with all the strength that one can muster.  The bodies of these hapless victims were brought to Kolkata and in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi – the `apostle of peace’ – that the chief minister blurted out her ‘pearls of wisdom’.     

The travails of the TMC and its maverick supremo are not only bizarre as one would think. It is at the same time extremely sinister. The growth of the ‘Maoists’ – obviously, not in terms of popular support but its depredations and mindless violence in the districts adjoining the Jharkhand and Orissa borders – was quite strange. Any avid reading of the history of Left adventurism in the country makes one to come to an interesting conclusion. While Naxalbari was the cradle of the Left adventurist movement in the country and the CPI(M) and  the Left suffered most due to its violence in the late sixties and early seventies, the movement completely petered out, particularly after the Left Front assumed office in West Bengal in 1977.  The agrarian reforms and the protection and consolidation of the democratic rights of the working people completely isolated the Naxalites in the state.  The resumption of their activities in early parts of the first decade of the new century started as armed incursions from Jharkhand initially and later on from Orissa. The thickly forested jungles on the borders of these states provided the natural cover, as well as, the strategic base that the ‘Maoists’ needed to move on to West Bengal. 

The Left had from the very beginning, maintained that the ‘Maoist’ movement cannot be treated merely as a challenge to law and order.  Their involvement in these forest fringe areas was not because of their compassion for the poor and the tribals who suffered from locational disadvantage and consequent comparative lack of development.  Despite this, the agrarian reforms and other benefits of decentralisation had expanded social sector development.  It is because of this, the Left had always been politically strong in these areas.  Premised on these experiences, the Left, therefore, argued for facing the challenge of ‘Maoist’ violence through a three pronged response; first, on the question of targeted socio-economic development, secondly on the question of political-ideological offensive to isolate them from the people- and finally, based on these two, to initiate administrative actions of the security forces that would finally be successful in containing the violence.

As opposed to this, the central government had always pitched for all out administrative confrontation.  The home minister, P Chidambaram, the fountainhead of such an exclusively confrontationist approach even mooted the idea of deploying the military and the air force to snuff out the ‘Maoists’. 

However, the maverick TMC supremo was totally opposed to the very idea of taking on the ‘Maoists’.  Because she understood that in order to undermine and weaken the Left in these areas which have traditionally been the bastion of the Left, the ‘Maoists’ could prove to be her hatchet men.  The ‘Maoists’ – the opportunists that they are – found these to be extremely convenient.  Their complete ideological bankruptcy and penchant for military strategy created conditions for the coming together of these two forces. West Bengal’s recent history – from the ‘Maoists’ involvement in the Nandigram agitation and the present West Bengal chief minister’s open dalliance with the ‘Maoists’ in Lalgarh - the alliance was eventually made official.  The media savvy ‘Maoist’ Polit Bureau member Kishanji announced from behind his masked face that the ‘Maoists’ would love to see the TMC supremo as the next chief minister of West Bengal in an interview to Ananda Bazar Patrika before elections. 

This was music to her ears.  This made her to claim that there are no ‘Maoists’ in West Bengal.  And, she was not even acknowledging the killings of hundreds of CPI(M) and Left activists and leaders who were being snuffed out by these ‘Maoist’ marauders.  And, she did everything possible to politically delegitimise the operation of the state and central joint security forces to protect the life and livelihood of innocent citizens who were at the receiving end of the mindless ‘Maoist’ violence. 

The complicity was so complete that while the ‘Maoists’ had hijacked a train, the Rajdhani Express, the Railways under her charge did not even mention the ‘Maoist’ involvement in the complaint that the department filed.  And, finally, came the shocking allegation in the wake of the Gyaneshwari tragedy. Not only did she claim that these gruesome deaths of the Ganeshwari passengers were not the result of ‘Maoist’ depredation but actually they have been done by the CPI(M) and the Left to discredit the Railway Ministry! The intellectuals – the `civil society’ her close band of trumpeters for `political change’ in fact went a step further.  They actually called a press conference on the eve of a crucial municipal election in Kolkata and directly charged the CPI(M) of engineering the tragedy.  These intellectuals – of whom some are now even part of the cabinet of the present West Bengal government – justified their position by claiming that ‘Maoists’ did not explicitly take the responsibility for the incident. 

Now that the TMC supremo has assumed the chief minister’s office, she has to reconcile with the harsh cold reality. She thought that the zeal with which the ‘Maoists’ had worked overtime to see her in the office that she holds today would continue to do so even after the objective has been secured.  But, as we know, the ‘Maoists’ show extreme opportunism in siding with this or that bourgeois political party for carrying on with violent methods to physically eliminate all political opposition.  The ‘Maoists’ clearly had an agenda that they would use the TMC to ensure the physical elimination of the CPI(M) and the Left  to facilitate their own physical stranglehold over a region which had remained a bastion of the Left.

CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST

But, now the chickens have come home to roost.  The latest dramatic turn of events saw the felling of that very ‘Maoist’ leader who once wanted to anoint the TMC supremo as the incumbent chief minister of West Bengal.  This is the real irony.  The operation of the joint security forces which was held back for almost five months had to be ultimately allowed since the ‘Maoists’ were not sparing the TMC functionaries once they had been able to regroup with the relief that the new government had provided.  The process of the so-called negotiations which was bound to fail because of the pan Indian nature of the ‘Maoist’ activity also further emboldened them. 

It is in this background that the gun battle ensured in the forests of Burisole which has by now become a household name – as the site which marked the elimination of Kishanji.  In a way, this was inevitable.  Far from being a revolutionary movement, which the ‘Maoists’ claim to lead, apparently he found himself thoroughly isolated and encircled – that is what the security forces had claimed. 

But strangely, neither the chief minister nor any of her top ranking officials from the police or the general administration had come out with any authentic version over the sequence of events which led to the elimination of Kishanji immediately after the announcement of the incident. More than anybody else, it is their supporters – particularly those sections of liberal persuasion – some of them even sympathetic to the ‘Maoist’ cause have come out quite sharply against the same government and the security forces for having done what they did. 

In doing this, they seem to have taken a leaf out of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s book of records. She did exactly this in questioning the elimination of Azad – the spokesman of the ‘Maoists’. She had actually demanded enquiry into Azad’s `murder’ not only outside but also in the parliament itself. In fact, directed by the court, an inquiry is still going on about this incident.

Now that Kishanji has been eliminated, the same charges are being leveled.  It is being alleged that the security forces had him in custody and this amounts to a `cold blooded murder of a prisoner in custody’.  It is now for the state government to clarify the real course of development transparently.  Rule of law would require that of her government.

However, in a public meeting recently, the chief minister has claimed that the security forces had encircled Kishanji for three continuous days.  The forces had also made an announcement over a public address system that he would be allowed a safe way out . But according to her, he did not respond positively and fired back.  This is what led to the armed confrontation which saw her one time `well wisher’ dead.

SINISTER RELATIONSHIP

The convergence of purpose which brought the TMC and the ‘Maoists’ together to eliminate the Left – does no longer exist.  The functional alliance appears to have come unstuck.  And, therefore, this belated admission over Gyneshwari Express tragedy and this renewed restoration of the joint security forces’ operation leading to the elimination of Kishanji. 

But the tenuous exercise to try and balance the relationship between these two sinister forces had continued for the last few months since the new government in West Bengal had assumed office, now seems to be finally over.  The group of interlocutors who had been officially appointed by the state government to carry out the discussions with the ‘Maoists’ have finally thrown up their hands. And, in the statement issued recently expressing their inability to carry on the process, they have squarely blamed the state government for having killed Kishanji `in cold blood’.

The course of the sinister alliance has really come to complete its vicious circle.  Sadly, the TMC and some of their grassroot level activists who are also poor and vulnerable have also now come to suffer from the mindless violence of the ‘Maoists’. 

But the chief minister is not prepared to accept the reality. While she has lambasted the ‘Maoists’ and their liberal sympathisers who don the mantle of  the human rights organisations for failing to condemn the death and killings of hapless victims of the mindless ‘Maoist’ violence – even going to the extent of pointing out that a large number of activists of the Left had  suffered – she failed to concede that she herself had shown similar proclivities.

To compound her almost criminal negligence in shielding the ‘Maoists’ – she is actually still maintaining that the CPI(M) and the ‘Maoists’ are in league.  This is not withstanding the fact that after the Lok Sabha elections alone almost 250 CPI(M) activists and leaders mostly poor and tribals laid down their lives in the course of taking on the political and ideological challenge of the ‘Maoists’.  But still there is time. The  threat that ‘Maoist’ violence poses to the life and livelihood of the most downtrodden sections of the society in the remotest jungles of West Bengal can only be repulsed by the joining of forces. The unity of all political parties who believe in the rule of law and securing life of the people must act together to isolate the ‘Maoists’.  It is the only enduring way to establish peace.   And, elimination of a single individual – however important he may be – cannot mark the end to the mindless violence which the ‘Maoists’ had been perpetrating.  The restoration of legitimate political activities of all political forces in the affected areas of jangal mahal area is the only rational course to achieve that objective.

People’s Democracy, December 04, 2011 

Trinamul-Maoist Nexus Endangers National Security

THROUGH these columns, we had been repeatedly exposing the diabolic nexus between the Trinamul Congress and the Maoists in West Bengal. If any reconfirmation was ever necessary, it has now come in a resounding manner through voluntary declarations by leaders of both the Trinamul and the Maoists that have appeared in the media.

Trinamul Congress MP from the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, Shri Kabir Suman, has recently launched his autobiographical narrative named `Nishner nam Taposhi Malik’ (the name of the flag is Taposhi Malik). The book, significantly, has been dedicated to Kishenji, the Polit Bureau member of CPI(Maoist) operating in West Bengal. In the book, Mr Suman has given an eye witness account of a meeting held in Trinamul Congress headquarters in Kolkata attended by two individuals – Raja Sarkhel and Prasun Chattopadhyaya – who are at present in judicial custody booked under certain provisions of the UAPA for their links with the Maoists. The concerned meeting, Shri Suman informs, was also attended by Ms Mamata Banerjee and Shri Sougata Roy who are currently ministers of the UPA government. The meeting discussed the possibilities of intervention in Nandigram in which implicitly the Maoists would also be involved.

The Maoists have earlier given detailed accounts of their involvement in Nandigram with the Trinamul Congress through public statements which have never been contradicted. The media reported on January 8, 2009 the following: “To wipe out CPI(M) from West Bengal, we must work together with all parties of the ruling class like, Trinamool Congress, Congress, BJP etc. The CPI(Maoist) document, titled `Some important problems and its solutions’ was circulated to the members after the incidents of Shalboni and Lalgarh. We must get all ruling parties associated as long they desire to be. We call CPI(M) as a Social Fascist organisation. Relations with Trinamool Congress and railway minister Mamata Banerjee must be strengthened.”

Such reports appeared periodically in various sections of the media all through the year. More exposures came in 2010. The Bengali daily, Aaj Kal, reported under the heading “Maoist leader detained from TMC leaders car” on November 10, 2010, the following: “Maoist leader Kanchan Deb Singh was arrested from Trinamool block president Nepal Singh’s car in Shalbani. Police stopped the car for checking and recognised Kanchan inside the car. Nepal Singh as well as Kanchan was taken to the police station though the block president was released within no time. Kanchan was associated with the PSBJC arms training in 2008. He was charged with various landmine blasts, looting of police van etc.”

The Delhi edition of The Hindustan Times has reported on January 5, 2011 a media statement : “purportedly signed by CPI(Maoist) West Bengal state committee member Vikram said: `We want our movement-oriented alliance with Mamata Banerjee to flourish…”. Further: “The declaration said both Maoists and TMC were silent on their alliance because of political compulsions, but they are coming out in the open as there is nothing more to hide. `We fought together during the struggles in Singur, Nandigram….”

It is now, clearly, beyond doubt that the Trinamul Congress had provided and continues to provide both the political cover and all assistance for the Maoists to penetrate into West Bengal in order to be used to mount terror attacks against the CPI(M) cadre and the common people aiming at extracting electoral benefit in the forthcoming elections.

We had drawn attention earlier to an irreconcilable contradiction within the UPA. On the one hand, the prime minister describes the Maoists as “posing the single gravest threat to India’s internal security”. On the other, in the union cabinet led by this very prime minister, there are members of the Trinamul Congress who are collaborating with the Maoists in order to achieve electoral gains at the expense of jeopardising India’s internal security.

Can this be allowed? Can such crass political opportunism (to retain a majority for the government) that endangers our country’s unity and integrity be permissible? Further, can such diabolic and cynical politics, for the sake of electoral gains that destroys democracy, peace and development so crucially required for creating better livelihood conditions for our people be tolerated?

Such politics, for the sake of not only Bengal and its people but for the sake of India and its people, needs to be defeated if the struggle for building a better India has to be carried forward.

 

PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY,

Editorial

January 5, 2011

'Maoists' are today Politically and Ideologically Cornered'

INTERVIEW WITH DEEPAK SARKAR

The 'Maoists' in Bengal are today politically and ideologically cornered due to the sustained ongoing campaign against them by the CPI(M), felt the Party West Medinipur district secretary, Deepak Sarkar. In an interview given to  N S Arjun recently, he spoke about the people's resistance against the 'Maoists' gaining ground in many parts of the district.

Below we give excerpts of the interview:

(Q) What is the latest situation in 'Maoist' terror affected villages in the district?

DEEPAK SARKAR: Situation in one part of the affected areas is happily improving because people have been able to overcome their fear and come out courageously against the 'Maoists'. But in other part where they are trying to penetrate, new methods of resistance have to be adopted.

(Q) There has been marked increase in the people's resistance to the 'Maoists' in the recent period. What has changed on the ground to result in this?

DEEPAK SARKAR:  First of all the continuous campaign undertaken by the Party and Left forces  against the 'Maoists' has helped. Secondly, our constant contact with the people and our support and reassurance to them not to be afraid as the democratic forces of not only the district but the entire state were with them gave the people confidence. Thirdly, people have become fed up  because of the continuous torture for the last one and half years. So they came out desperately against the TMC-'Maoists' and got some success. This coming out against these forces is increasing in the recent past.

(Q) The 'Maoists' are nowhere in the country facing such organised people's resistance as is going on here. Can you explain how the Party is leading such resistance?

DEEPAK SARKAR: The CPI(M) and Left forces are well organised and strong in West Bengal. The Party is tackling the 'Maoists' politically, ideologically and organisationally. Naturally they are isolated from the people and their political manoeuvring capacity has decreased sharply. They are today ideologically and politically cornered.

(Q) How do you see the role of Trinamool Congress in this violence?

DEEPAK SARKAR: Their union ministers are demanding withdrawal of joint security forces from jangal mahal area.Trinamool party has directly colluded with the 'Maoists' because they have a one-point programme – oust the Left Front government. They have realised after many attempts that their aim cannot be achieved by democratic means. Now they are resorting to violent means for achieving their aim. They are therefore hand-in-glove with the 'Maoists'.

(Q) The opposition is charging that the CPI(M) is running armed camps in jangal mahal area and terrorising the people. Your response.

DEEPAK SARKAR: This is an old story. Our people are just now coming out of shelters and returning to the villages.They are protecting themselves and their villages with their traditional weapons. In Radhangar village in Jhargram area, one night hundreds of people came out against the 'Maoists',  most of them being women. They chased the goons away with their traditional weapons. When they became successful the next day adjoining villages also witnessed similar resistance actions. Today the people are guarding their villages day and night. When this way the people are reclaiming their villages, the so-called independent media and Trinamool Congress are levelling baseless charges. Recently, the English daily 'The Hindu' exposed how Trinamool Congress MPs falsely depicted 'Maoist' training camp pictures as 'CPI(M) armed camps' ones.

(Q) How does the Party plan to defend these villages knowing the barbarity of 'Maoists' could return?

DEEPAK SARKAR: Party depends on mass mobilisation, mass activity and normal developmental work. With these the confidence of people will be high to face any sort of barbarity.

(Q) How do you view the recent solidarity campaign across the country in defence of the struggle being waged here?

DEEPAK SARKAR: Well, it has been very encouraging for us to find that people across the country are with us in this struggle. Moreover, this campaign would remove the misgivings and misconceptions through out the country about the Left Front government and the 'Maoists' activity.

  

People's Democracy     October 03, 2010

TRINAMUL MP LINK WITH MAOISTS EXPOSED

TRINAMOOL MP SUPPLIED AMMO TO NAXALITES

By Anirban Roy in Kolkata

West Bengal CID claims he provided over 1,000 rounds.

THE PRIVATE alliance between the Trinamool Congress and the CPI ( Maoist) has been exposed.

Subhendu Adhikari, the Trinamool Congress MP from Tamluk, close to Nandigram, had supplied over 1,000 rounds of ammunition to the Maoist party cadre in Nandigram, claims the Criminal Investigation Department ( CID) of West Bengal police.

Adhikari, the son of union minister of state in the ministry of rural development Sisir Kumar Adhikari, was active during the Trinamool Congressled fight against the Left Front government’s plans to acquire land in Nandigram. This had first led to police firing in March 2007 and later to a pitched battle between Maoist cadres and the police in August 2008.

According to the CID’s interrogation of Madhusudan Mondal, the Maoist zonal committee secretary for Nandigram, the Maoists set up a base in Nandigram only after March 2007 and began arming the local cadres with the help of Trinamool Congress.

The CID had arrested Mondal on June 29 from Amtala in South 24- Parganas district. A copy of the interrogation report of the Maoist leader is available with M AIL T ODAY . Mondal told the police that Adhikari supplied ammunition for the CPI ( Maoist) members to fight the CPI ( M) and the police in Nandigram. Meanwhile, the over ground activists of the Maoist party along with the Trinamool and others had set up the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee ( BUPC) to mobilise people against land acquisition.

Adhikari termed the report as totally false, and said it was being circulated with the intention to malign him.

“ Our movement was a non- violent movement,” he claimed, adding that Trinamool members were rather victims of the CPI( M)’ s armed attacks in Nandigram.

“ If we used arms, why was no one from the other side injured or killed?” Adhikari questioned. He said it was an attempt by West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to target the Trinamool Congress.

About 35 Marxist cadres, including two local committee secretaries — from the Kendamari local committee and Sonachura local committee — were killed over one and half years of the Maoist- led fight against the CPI( M).

Adhikari is a commerce graduate. He was a member of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee and later president of the Trinamool youth wing in Midnapore. He has declared assets worth Rs 5 crore, including buildings, apartments and non- agricultural land.

Mondal’s confession has confirmed that the anti- land acquisition movement was far from being non- violent.

During the interrogation, he said the Maoists wanted to kill Laxman Seth, the then CPI ( M) MP from Haldia.

Mondal claimed that the Maoists, BUPC cadres and the Trinamool worked in tandem to thwart the government’s attempt to acquire land in Nandigram.

Mondal has been charged with offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967.

Interestingly, a member of Mondal’s Maoist committee is a Trinamool activist, Chandan Pramanik.

The members of the zonal committee are Siddhartha Mondal, Pramanik and Radheshyam Giri. Pramanik is also the anchal ( area) secretary of the Trinamool at Khejuri and is underground. All the other members of the Nandigram unit have been arrested.

The first Maoist zonal committee of Nandigram was formed in September 2007 in the presence of Maoist leaders Telegu Deepak and Sudip Congder in the house of Khokon Sheet. Madhusudan Mondal was made secretary. Local Trinamool leaders began aiding the Maoist operations as soon as the committee was formed.

According to the police interrogation report, armed Maoist cadres — Bantul, Kartik, Badal, Mukti, Jhantu and Juna — were sent to Trinamool’s local Nandigram leader Nishikanta Mondal to counter the CPI( M) and the police, Mondal said. Deepak and Congder liaised with Nishikanta and other Trinamool and BUPC leaders for the armed operations.

Two training camps were organised at the Sonachura Primary School and Sonachura Shitala Mandir. More than 50 BUPC and Trinamool members undertook training. Maoist commanders Ranjit Pal, Congder and Deepak had imparted the training.

Mondal told his interrogators that as the movement in Nandigram was gaining momentum, Congder had brought four .303 rifles and one 9 mm carbine from the Jangalmahal area. He handed the weapons over to Sheet. Subsequently, Congder brought 18 rifles of .315 caliber.

One make- shift arms- manufacturing unit had been set up in an abandoned house in Goalpara village near Sonachura, the interrogation report revealed. A man identified as Barun was in charge of the gun factory, and had manufactured 50 firearms of .315 caliber to fight the CPI( M) cadres and the police.

Mondal told the police that the Maoist Nandigram zonal unit was in possession of 20 claymore mines, of which, only three were used. The other mines were deactivated as per the advice of the Trinamool members.

After the state committee of the CPI( Moaists) decided to withdraw cadres from Nandigram, some of the arms and ammunition were deposited with four Trinamool leaders, the report said.

Five .315 rifles and one .303 rifles were kept with Sheikh Sahabuddin of Hossainpur, four .315 rifles, two .303 rifles and one 9 mm carbine were kept with Nishikanta.

Three .315 rifles and one .303 rifle were kept with Indra Karan and Panchanan Das in Khejuri village.

Later, the BUPC and Trinamool leaders refused to return the weapons and ammunition to the Maoists. However, Mondal claimed that the Maoists were not responsible for Nishikanta Mondal’s killing in September last year.

Mondal is from Durgachowk village in East Midnapore district.

His parental landed property near Haldia Port was acquired by the Kolkata Port Trust ( KoPT), with promises of a permanent job and monetary compensation. But, the family did not get anything.

Soon he joined the Sangrami Shramik Mancha, an organisation fighting for the families that lost their land to the KoPT. He was arrested in 2004 for clashing with a CPI( M) member.

In 2006, he returned to his village, and was arrested again in connection with the old case. In jail, he met many people from Nandigram, and became close to them. On January 2, 2007, he went to Nandigram, and started taking part in the movement against land acquisition spearheaded by the BUPC. During his stay in Nandigram, he was motivated and indoctrinated in Maoist ideologies by Ajit Das alias Nirmal Das, a state committee member of the CPI ( Maoist). On April 27, 2007, he met Maoist leaders Deepak, Congder and few others, and decided to join the organisation.