Interview with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)
The following is an interview that I have been pleased to conduct and publish, with Comrade Basavraj, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), one of the strongest, most successful, most dynamic, most popular and most feared by the ruling classes communist parties on the planet. Indeed, the people’s war in India, being led by the CPI (Maoist), is of equal importance in the current era, as the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, led by Comrade Lenin and the Bolsheviks, was to the decades of the 1910s and 20s. Both myself and the interviewee have sought to do our best to ask and answer major questions that you and others in the International Communist Movement may have about the Indian Revolution.
Q — Which mode of production does your party judge India to be in; semi-feudal and semi-colonial, or industrial capitalist?
A — Revolutionary Communists in the leadership of Comrade CM [Charu Mazumdar] and Comrade KC [Kanhai Chatterjee] concretely analysed the class contradictions in existence after a study of the economic, political, social, cultural and geographical conditions of India in the light of MLM. They affirmed that India is a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society and that the path of revolution shall be Protracted People’s War, that it shall first accomplish the stage of New Democratic Revolution and later advance to the stage of Socialism. Our united CPI (Maoist) is implementing this political-military line.
In the background of large scale discussions and debate among Marxists, revisionists, neo-revisionists, bourgeois intellectuals and NGOs as to whether our country is a capitalist society or semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, our party analysed and synthesized the reports of the studies of Relations of production that our party took up in various states since 2011, and the CC released a detailed document on ‘Changes in Relations of Production-Our Political Program’ in its Sixth (contd.) meeting in December 2020. The document asserted that our country is yet a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society. However, it also said that there are considerable distorted capitalist changes favourable to the imperialists and comprador bureaucratic capitalists and landlords. We adopted our political program so as to adopt corresponding tactics. You must have seen the document.
Earlier to British aggression, our country was a feudal society. After the British occupied India it changed into a colonial country. In fact by the time the British seized India, capitalism had been developing from the womb of feudal society in some areas of the country. During this time the Parsis of Mumbai, Banias of Gujarat and Marwaris of Rajasthan worked as agents to occupy India. The Indian big bourgeois class did not fight against British imperialism as per its character but extended total support during the days of war and other times. The British collaborated with the feudal Kings, Zamindars, money-lenders and merchants of India and came in the way of the independent development of capitalist developing in the country, basing on the feudal social base in the country. They introduced a culture that serves British imperialism. They introduced distorted capitalist relations in their interests. Many old independent big traders and bankers of the country became bankrupt. Similarly the British made several changes in feudalism as per their colonial rule. They rejuvenated the weakening feudal relations. They destroyed the self-sufficient rural economic order in India. This made the peasantry and the artisans bankrupt. Forces of production were destroyed in a big way. The domestic market further declined. They introduced permanent tax collection method, ryotwari, mahal Wari and zamindari methods and turned land into a commodity. Thus the farmers lost their traditional right to land. India became a centre of production of raw goods and industrial goods necessary for industrial production of the British. They developed few industries, commercial crops, plantations, transport and communications only for the needs of the British. Comprador big bourgeois class emerged from the feudal Kings, Zamindars, Divans, comprador traders and money lending classes that helped the British. This class played an important role in allowing the British to loot the natural resources of our country. New Zamindar-feudal class developed in the place of old zamindars. Indian economy became an inseparable part of the world capitalist system in a colonial and dependent level. On one hand the Indian comprador bourgeoisie depended on imperialism for its existence and development and on the other became an instrument for colonial exploitation and suppression. Thus Indian feudal society became colonial, semi-feudal society. The British changed the country into a colony for two centuries and continued their exploitation.
The imperialists faced a difficult situation with the big defeat of the fascist forces by the Red Army of Soviet Union and the people of the world in the leadership of great Marxist teacher Stalin during the Second World War; due to the considerable weakening of imperialism after war; the
establishment of people’s democratic states in East European countries; the reach of the great success of China Revolution in the leadership of Mao to the edge; the emergence of world socialist system in one-third of the world; the development of independent/national liberation movements all over the world. Thus they changed their earlier direct colonial rule and form of exploitation and took up new form of exploitation — the neo-colonial form basing on the compradors trained by them and comprising indirect rule, exploitation and hegemony in a new style.
There was a unique revolutionary condition in the Indian sub-continent also during this time. There was a powerful movement to release ‘Azad Hindu Phouz’ prisoners all over the country; the effective anti-imperialist demonstrations of the students; apart from powerful anti-feudal movements in princely states, the Tebhaga and Bakast movements, the strike of postal and telegraph employees ; the great rebellion of the Royal Indian Navy in Bombay and the rebellious trends in Army and Airforce; the rebellion of Bihar police; struggles in solidarity to proletariat, the beginning of the historic peasant armed struggle in Telangana — all these brought the imperialist rule in India almost to an end. In such condition, the Indian comprador big bourgeois class collaborated with the feudal class and betrayed the Indian democratic revolution. The British imperialists made conspiracies depending on Congress and Muslim League leaders who happen to be reliable agents to them, instigated them to religious massacres and divided the country on the basis of religion.
In this background an agreement was made on 15th August 1947 to transfer power. This happened only after agreements such as the Bombay plan of the imperialist monopoly capitalists and Indian comprador bourgeoisie. In a word, the British imperialists handed over power to their reliable agents, the Congress party and Muslim League that represented the comprador big capitalist and big landlord classes and went back stage. That is the reason the comprador ruling classes did not disrupt the semi-feudal relations in the country. After 1947, our country initially went into the economic and political control of Britain, America and subsequently to Soviet imperialism and again into the hands of America. As a result of the hegemony of various imperialist countries in terms of economy and politics on our country, Indian society transformed into semi-colonial, semi-feudal order in the indirect rule, exploitation and hegemony of several imperialist forces. Therefore we say that India did not achieve genuine independence on 15thAugust 1947, that it is nominal and in essence is fake. Colonial exploitation and oppression changed its form but essence retained. The objective of national democratic revolution and national liberation was not achieved due to the betrayal of the Congress party and Muslim League. CPI not only tailed the Congress party but withdrew the great Telangana armed struggle and betrayed revolution.
After 1947, the Indian comprador big bourgeois and landlord classes utilised the state power and minted utmost profits through extreme exploitation and oppression on the people. the comprador big bourgeois class thus transformed into comprador bureaucratic big bourgeois class.
The 1944 Bombay plan and the mixed economy adopted after the transfer of power in fact are in the interests of the imperialists, comprador bureaucratic bourgeois and landlord classes. Public and private sectors were given place in the plan. But in fact the actual intention of the public sector industries is to utilise people’s money in a large scale, build heavy iron and steel industries, thermal electric projects, coal, iron mining and heavy dams, to provide opportunities to the imperialists, comprador bourgeois and landlord classes so as to develop basing on those, depend on the imperialist capital and technology to build them and to provide an opportunity for their exploitation.
For the past 75 years since 1947, several agrarian, industrial, service sector policies, fake reforms, Five Year Plans, green revolution and other such things have been implemented according to the interests of the imperialists and exploitive ruling classes. Later the LPG policies came into implementation. Disinvestment, deindustrialisation and deregulation came to be implemented. In the name of disinvestment public sector enterprises are being handed over to the imperialists and comprador capitalists at dead cheap rates. Thus unorganised sector and private sector became the main trend. Labour exploitation intensified further. The rights that they achieved through struggle are being trampled. Casual contract methods have become the main form for the workers. The ongoing semi-colonial relations are the reason for these difficulties and misery.
During the period of the First Five Year Plan in 1951–56, although land ceiling laws were made in various states, the comprador governments did not implement them properly. The landlords could retain land on benami names. On the other hand land under Coffee, Tea, rubber, fruit plantations, cattle rearing, sugar factories, in lands cultivated through modern methods and lands under temples, churches and masjids were exempted and so land reforms became a farce. They either removed tenant farmers or changed them and saw that legal tenant rights are not implemented. Since land ceiling was imposed on the basis of individual instead of family, landlord families could retain thousands of acres of land. While in 1955, nearly 6.2 crore acres of surplus land was available for distribution, by the end of 1970s, the surplus land declared was 24 lakh acres only. Only half of it was distributed. Thus it is clear that the land reforms have not been implemented towards the direction of structural changes in land ownership.
Although there was a little industrialisation in the name of Five-Year Plans, it took place only on semi-feudal base and in the interests of the imperialists and comprador ruling classes. So all this development was distorted and topsy-turvy.
The strategy of green revolution that came to be implemented in the second half of the 1960s was in fact the program of Multi-National Companies of the US. Green revolution was implemented in Punjab, Haryana and other areas of Western Uttar Pradesh and later in one-third of the country in the name of overcoming deficiency of food, with the objective of making it an alternative to the armed peasant rebellions that spread to Naxalbari, Srikakulam, Mushahari, Lakhimpur-Kheri, Debra-Gopivallabhapur, Bheerbhum, Kanksa, Budbud and several areas of 10 states in a spate in the rural areas and to create a captive market for the products such as agricultural machinery, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and HYV seeds of Multi-National Companies.
The comprador governments mainly provided heavy subsidies, cheap loans and irrigation through dams to the landlords and rich farmers without transforming the land relations fundamentally, distorted capitalist relations developed in the semi-feudal rural economy. The ‘Green Revolution’ only benefitted imperialist Multi-National Companies, comprador capitalists, landlords and a section of the rich peasantry. It devastated the poor and middle class farmers and land. Farmers left land in a big way. Growth in productivity, decrease of crop rates, more inequalities between the rich and the poor, rise in unemployment, increase of inequalities between areas, rise in environmental pollution, reduction of land fertility, vulnerability of crops to severe diseases where pesticides also do not help are some of the negative results of ‘green revolution’. Finally these pesticides helped for the suicides of the farmers.
Before the implementation of LPG policies, Soviet Social imperialism unleashed hegemony on the public sector economy of India since the end of 1960s in the name of aid. This gradually declined since 1980s. With the growth of public sector in 1970s, the comprador bureaucratic bourgeois class also grew utilising it.
In order to fulfil the interests of the imperialists and the interests of Indian comprador ruling classes as a part of it, Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation policies were implemented in the first phase from 1985 to 1991. The second phase is going on since 1991.
The Soviet Union fell into an intense economic crisis since 1985 and the dependency of India started to decline and so US sponsored New Economic Policies were brought to be implemented in India. In the first phase of LPG, the private corporate sector gained several tax subsidies in the first phase. The properties of comprador big bourgeoisie rose multi-fold.
With the commercialisation of agriculture globalisation started through contract agriculture in the first phase as per the schemes of imperialists and spread to several areas. Corporate companies gained total control on agriculture in contract lands.
Now let us see the second phase of globalisation of semi-colonial, semi-feudal system.
In this phase imperialism created 7 intense crises that devastates the oppressed nationalities and people living on planet earth. They are –economic crisis, employment crisis, environmental-ecological crisis, forcible migration crisis, fuel crisis, socio-cultural crisis, politico-military crisis. Imperialism took shelter in fascism since it cannot solve these crises. Racism grew all over the world. Fascist parties strengthened. Those came to power in several countries. The Hindutva Fascist forces came to power in the leadership of Modi in India as a part of it. As a result of the pro-imperialist, pro-comprador policies of the ruling classes of Modi government dependence and neo-colonial exploitation intensified in our country. Apart from the working class, peasantry and other toiling classes exploitation intensified on small and medium kind capitalists and traders, in order to fulfil the interests of imperialist comprador bureaucratic capitalist, feudal interests. Especially due to the economic, industrial, mining, agricultural, service sector policies taken up as a part of implementation of LPG policies at various times, mainly the total foreign partnership in domestic industries, allowing the control of imperialist MNCs and dependency on foreign technology made the country further dependent. Domestic and foreign corporate enterprises are looting the labour power, products, services and mainly raw materials in export-import dependent industries, especially the outsourcing industries and agribusiness companies. Public-Private Partnership is spread and implemented.
During this time, the slavery of comprador governments to imperialism reached its zenith. They are giving total opportunities to loot the land, labour, raw material and other natural resources of the country. They are handing over the economic, political, military and cultural sectors to imperialism. Micro, Small and Medium kind — MSME sector is shrinking day by day. Comprador governments are destroying the independent market of this sector. There is a drastic reduction in the growth rate of this sector. Demonetisation and GST led to the closure of 4,86,291 Micro, Small and Medium kind industries all over the country. Lakhs of workers are becoming unemployed.
Due to LPG policies our country is further getting into the clutches of foreign loans. The bankrupt rule of Modi led the foreign loans in the past eight years to Rs. 135 lakh crores. India is in the 5th place among the most loan receiving countries. The share of agriculture and industrial sectors that provide employment to 70 percent of the economy in GDP is going down and that of the service sector that provides employment to a mere 30 percent is rising. The fact that 100 prominent US companies acquired half of the economy of our country is enough to understand the joint onslaught of International monopoly enterprises and domestic comprador bureaucratic bourgeois corporate enterprises. During this period prominent comprador bureaucratic monopoly capitalists such as Mukesh Ambani, Adani, Mittal, Birla, TATA, Ruyiaya, Jindal, Vedanta, Infosys, ESSAR, Anil Ambani, TVS Iyyengar, Thapar, RPG, Bajaj, Mahindra and Pathanjali Ramdev rose heavily.
A new rich class and new forms of exploitation came forth in the country. Vital sectors such as mining, heavy industries and tourism and the utmost profitable telecom, power and finance sectors are in the public sector. Therefore plans are aggressively and speedily being implemented to eliminate those and hand over to foreign corporate enterprises. Special incentives and facilities are being provided to privatise each and every sector with a special policy. Public sector enterprises are pushed into losses in a planned manner and are put in the hands of corporate enterprises at dead cheap prices. Rise in high tech machinery, utilisation of technology and outsourcing deprived lakhs of workers and employees of livelihood. Organised sector declined and unorganised sector became the main one. The domestic and foreign corporate companies achieved Rs. 17.5 lakh crores during 2014–18. Imperialists are taking away nearly Rs.47.09 lakh crores from the country every year. It is not possible for a country put to such intensive exploitation to develop.
Due to considerable changes that took place in semi-feudalism during this period, a wide collective form of collaboration of government and nongovernment ‘party-cooperative association-panchayat-police’ systems came forth newly in the place of earlier forms of feudal hegemony. Cooperative bank is an important structural form of collaboration of bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudalism. The cooperative capital of these cooperative banks is the amalgamation of the surplus of investments of imperialists, comprador bureaucratic capitalists and local semi-feudal elements. A new system of local hegemony and exploitation came forth on the base of government properties/funds through these.
According to the statistics of NABARD of 2017, the number of landlords in the rural areas is 5.76 percent. Although the number of landlords came down and also that of extent of big land ownership, feudal hegemony is going on in the economic, social and political sectors. This is a change in form and not in essence. One more important development in the period of globalisation is the acquisition of lakhs of acres of cultivable, forest lands of farmers and tribal people. MNCs, comprador bureaucratic big bourgeoisie, NGOs, religious organisations, stock market brokers and several kinds of mafias are seizing the government lands and the cultivable lands of the farmers. The lands of farmers and forest lands are being allotted to non-agriculture projects. Nearly four crore acres of land had been acquired forcibly by the exploitive comprador governments displacing six and a half crorespeople in 1951–2010. Compensation and rehabilitation are nominal. The problem of displaced became a main factor in land problem.
On the other hand, Indian market was widely opened for agricultural imports. Investment in agriculture sector reached a worse level. Food security policy had been liquidated. Public distribution system had been weakened. Public sector acquiring policy had been privatised. Minimum Support Price is not at least two times the expenditure on production of crops. Agricultural goods produced heavily and cheaply with heavy subsidies in imperialist countries are poured into the domestic market. Due to all these and other factors the agrarian sector fell in severe crisis. In one word, due to globalisation, the inequalities between the rich and the poor rose to the highest level.
When compared with capitalist/imperialist countries, crop productivity is very less in our country. There is a constant rise in small land ownership. Production of ordinary crops continues to be the main trend even now. This is an important criterion to semi-feudal relations and backward semi-feudal mode of production. Although there is a rise in wage labour in agriculture and affiliated sectors of agriculture and in the number of agricultural labour and semi-proletariat working on wages, there is a large discrepancy between their wages and those of the modern proletariat in the industries. This change did not lessen the semi-feudal exploitation to the least extent.
Most of the surplus created in agriculture is in the bureaucratic hegemony of banks/cooperative associations, money-lenders, shahukars and various finance enterprises. This is coming in the way of capital accumulation. The condition of capitalist reproduction is seen nowhere. Semi-feudal relations are an obstacle to the development of capitalism from the top to the bottom. Money lending and commercial capital seizes the agricultural products/goods of the farmers but not the process of production. This process is binding the farmers in semi-feudal relations. It controls their labour power and do not transform them into workers. It neither lets them transform into capitalists.
The labour contract between a hegemonic caste landlord and a Dalit landless labourer is semi-feudal in nature. This is at the same time a base for economic and non-economic exploitation and oppression. Brahmanic caste based feudalism and caste-class oppression is yet lively and prevalent in the rural areas. Caste hierarchic system is integral to semi-feudal relations. Most of the people are bound to backward relations of production and this is acting as a chain to the development of forces of production. This is keeping the majority of the people in utter poverty and miserable condition. It is shrinking their purchasing power thus it is limiting the development of domestic market. Suppression, oppression, discrimination, untouchability, social boycott, direct violence, massacres, live burning, sexual atrocities on women, burning of houses, exploitation of properties, destruction on the oppressed Dalit castes and tribal people are yet an ordinary feature.
As a result of the policies the comprador rulers are implementing since transfer of power in 1947 and the globalisation policies implemented since 1991, as a result of the anti-feudal class struggles that took place in the leadership of our party for the past five decades and the anti-imperialist, antigovernment movements, there are considerable changes in the various states/areas where revolutionary movement is going on under the leadership of our Party. Distorted capitalist relations are spreading in production. The earlier landlords shifted their properties and investments to the town areas. Revolutionary peasant committees/Ryot Coolie Sangams, Revolutionary People’s Committees (RPC) are built and consolidated and class struggle is spreading. This led to considerable changes in class composition of the villages. Non-agricultural rural hierarchs were established and land was mainly concentrated in their hands. New methods of exploitation came forth. Due to all these, semi-feudal relations relatively became weak. In the tribal areas where revolutionary movement took place strongly, forest lands and the surplus lands of non-tribal landlords and the bad gentry were seized. There is a stop to the exploitation and oppression of government, forest and revenue departments, money lenders and market traders. Wage labourer system reduced to a large extent. Struggles against imperialists, public-private investment, state and its compradors are rising.
As per the changes in the past seven decades, it is undoubted that Indian economy is not at all capitalist or in the path of transforming capitalist, that there is no such democratic trend in the country and more so, on the contrary semi-feudal relations are relatively weak. Land problem is the main problem and land reforms on the basis of land to the tiller yet bears importance and relevance in the broad rural areas.
Semi-feudalism means although capitalist relations developed at various levels in the womb of feudal system, those did not yet develop into fundamentally independent capitalist relations in a comprehensive level and so this is a system where semi-feudal relations continue. These capitalist relations that developed at various levels are considerable but those are quantitative only. There is no qualitative change in the relations of production. There is no fundamental change in the nature of Indian revolution or in the friendly and enemy classes of revolution. However much capitalist changes took place in Indian semi-colonial, semi-feudal economy bound in imperialist economy, all are in the interest of the imperialists, comprador big bourgeois and feudal classes. There are no chances of a change into an independent capitalist country.
When we observe these changes, it makes it clear that these changes cannot fundamentally affect our ordinary political line and the path of Protracted People’s War followed to make success this political line, that our party adopted, basing on the changes in the era of imperialism, especially all over the world in neo-colonial period and the social changes that took place until the great revolutionary spate of Naxalbari in our country, the document that was enriched in the Unity Congress-Ninth Congress and, moreover those would further complicate the implementation of our path. It, therefore makes it clear that we need to creatively implement our political-military line according to the social changes that took place in the country,, learning lessons from the experiences of social revolution and to adopt our strategic plans so as to fulfil the tasks of our political-military tactics according to these changes. It is possible to defeat the enemy classes by uniting the entire friendly classes and isolating the enemy classes against the common enemies according to these changes.
For this purpose we must destroy the three hills such as the exploitation, oppression and suppression of imperialism, comprador bureaucratic bourgeois and feudal classes that are depressing the Indian people by bringing down the outdated semi-colonial, semi-feudal system in the country to establish New Democratic society with the objective to establish Socialism-Communism by accomplishing the yet incomplete tasks of National democratic revolution in India. The only path for this is New Democratic Revolution with the axle of Agrarian Revolution on the basis of land to the tiller. India can attain liberation from the exploitation of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic comprador big capital only through this revolution.
Depending upon the distinct characteristic features of Revolutionary war in India, military strategy will be Protracted People’s War. It means, as Comrade Mao said, establishing revolutionary base areas in the rural area where the enemy is relatively weak and gradually encircle the cities that are forts for enemy forces and then seize them.
We can fulfil national liberation and democratic revolutionary tasks such as seizing land without any compensation to the landlords on the basis of ‘land to the tiller’ and distribute the lands of the landlords to agricultural labour, poor farmers and lower middle class farmers; to occupy the agricultural estates and plantations of imperialist MNCs, capitalist landlords, comprador bureaucratic capitalists and government institutions; to nationalise revolutionary people’s governments; to industrialise the country basing on serial policies on the principle of ‘basing on agriculture and keeping the industries in the lead’, ‘walking on two legs’; encourage and develop cooperative agricultural movement and agricultural cooperative associations; nationalise imperialist enterprises, companies, comprador bureaucratic bourgeois companies and government lands; seize their properties and banks, annul domestic and foreign loans and the unequal agreements; and eradicate unemployment only through New Democratic Revolution.
Q — Many of the areas in which your Party and the PLGA are active in are very rich in biodiversity and in rare and important plant and wildlife. What is the Party’s stance towards conservation in these areas, and on the capitalist-imperialist destruction of the environment more broadly?
A — The areas of the revolutionary movement under the leadership of our party are rich of bio-diversity. There are countless trees, green forests and ever flowing rivers, medicinal herbs, forest animals, various kinds of birds, mammals, insects, rivers, water animals, amphibians, hundreds of fish, dozens of small forest produce available from the forests, various kinds of roots, fruits, bushes and trees that give fruits, thousands of kinds of paddy grains protected in traditional methods, pulses, oil seeds are abundant. There is enormous danger to the valuable, magnificent, unique, balance natural biodiversity from imperialists, comprador bureaucratic capitalists for a long time. Due to the anti-people, imperialist sponsored policies of the exploitive ruling classes, this bio-diversity and environment are facing destruction. Nature must not be let fall for profits of a few domestic, foreign big exploiters. natural balance must be preserved, environment must be protected and natural wealth and resources must be utilised in a balanced manner to improve human living conditions. Environmental protection and natural balance and improving human living conditions are mutually dependent. We must constantly fight against the destruction of resources by capitalist imperialism. New Democratic Revolution shall form the fundamental basis for permanent solution to this problem.
These are a few examples to show how the imperialist MNCs are destroying the bio-diversity of our country. Dr. Richaria collected more than 22,000 paddy grains and above 1800 leafy vegetables from thousands of farmers from hundreds of villages in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and preserved its germplasm in the Indira Gandhi National Agricultural University in Raipur, the capital of the present Chhattisgarh in 1950s and 60s. Out of these, there are those that grow with less water, that give less grass, more grass, spread good smell, that are long, short, that grow in any season and so on. But the germplasm of these paddy grains was stolen by the MNCs of the US and other such countries in collaboration of comprador rulers of our country. The MNCs claim to have developed those grains in the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Manila and sell them with names such as IR36, IR-72 to India and other countries. They force the farmers to depend on MNCs for seeds every year.
The actual story behind the preservation of the development of so many thousands of kinds of seeds that hands over a great historic experience is very interesting. The world must know. The peasantry of Chhattisgarh make a festival called Akti. On that day, all the youth play Kolatam and ask paddy from every house. They sow the crop collected from the whole village in a common land. Naturally new kind of seeds are generated in the process of growth of crop. They collected those crops separately and sowed it. Thus every year seeds with new characteristics emerged in every village. Thus every village developed into an agricultural laboratory and every farmer into an agricultural scientist and so many thousands of paddy seeds developed. Paddy seeds developed in the country and that possess such diversity have been stolen by the MNCs with the support of comprador governments and are owning those. Hundreds of kinds of local paddy seeds, pulses, roots, leafy vegetables, vegetables, fruit seeds and other such are yet available in the interior tribal areas. There is a strong need to protect and preserve them from not going into the hands of corporate companies.
In 1990 also a MNC Syngenta tried to steal the germplasm of various kinds of seeds in collaboration with the management, when a patriot Professor took the initiative to expose the matter. Democrats, Mass Organisations and Trade Unions took up struggles and the attempts were stopped.
With the indiscriminate exploitation of resources by the imperialists and their agents, the comprador bureaucratic capitalists for their profits, lakhs of acres of forests, forest lands and riverine areas are being devastated with the heavy mining projects, mega industrial projects and big dams. Trees, organisms and animals are becoming extinct. Sound, underground, surface water and air pollutions are intensifying. Environmental destruction is going on in a big way. Rich bio-diversity is becoming extinct.
Due to mining in the country, many small rivers and canals apart from the big rivers are being polluted. The waters of these rivers and canals are not feasible for cultivation. The water is polluted to the extent that it cannot be used even for washing, leave alone for drinking. Almost all the rivers flowing from near the mines are being polluted. Water organisms and bird species are becoming extinct. People are suffering from severe ill health apart from various kinds of skin diseases.
Drilling, explosion, goods trains, lorries (trucks) and machines used for the transport of mineral resources in heavy mining and the heavy sounds of the machines cause intense sound pollution. According to an estimate, one tonne of explosive material needs to be used for 5 thousand tonnes of iron. In a few places the sound of mine explosion is heard up to a distance of 150 kms. This is causing cracks in the walls of the houses of the people of the towns and villages near coal mines, iron ore mines, bauxite mines. The firing and shelling from the field firing range of various government forces are causing harm to the ears of the people. sound pollution and explosions are leading to heart diseases, blood pressure, deafness and premature deliveries.
Field firing ranges are arranged near the residential areas. People are being injured due to firing and shelling from this range. Their properties are destroyed. In Jharkhand, people fought and stopped few field firings ranges. Movements are going on against field firing ranges in many states.
The gases that emanate out of the explosions in mining, the poisonous gases from the heavy industries and the pollution from blast furnaces all together are intensifying air pollution day by day.
Capitalist imperialism only squeezes more and more profits from its industries but does not make proper arrangements to see that no accidents occur. Scores and thousands of people lost their lives in the several industrial accidents and in underground coal mines due to sheer negligence. Lakhs of people suffer from severe physical and mental ill health. The example of the accident in Union Carbide, a MNC of the US in Bhopal in 1984 reveals the situation. More than two and a half thousand people lost their lives due to leakage of Methyl Iso Cyanide. Thousands more became ill. Warren Anderson, the MD of the factory who was responsible for such a grave accident was sent in a respectful manner and with heavy security by the government officers to the US by flight. This is the model of slavery of the ruling classes to imperialism.
In May 2020, 12 people died of a gas leak in LG Polymers, a MNC of South Korea in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Hundreds were ill. Thousands of birds became extinct. There are many such examples.
The Indian exploitive governments who saw with their own eyes the fierce accidents that occurred in nuclear projects in Russia and Japan are purchasing the outdated ones from imperialists leading the people to death.
No one can forget the tragic story of the villages that were drowned due to dam on River Narmada. The construction of Polavaram dam on River Godavari drowns 250 villages and lakhs of acres of forest and agricultural lands of four states. This is the case with each and every heavy dam. Ecology, bio-diversity, natural wealth, resources, land and water resources, environment and the livelihood of the people are destructed due to heavy mining, the construction of dams and industries. Rain water is stored in the layers of mineral resources, especially bauxite mines and flows into streams and rivers slowly all through the year. These streams and rivers are the life line for the tribal and non-tribal people living in the forest areas. The exploration of these minerals leads to a drastic reduction of water level in these rivers and underground. The polluted water from the mines and industries and the water from the bathrooms and latrines of these areas into the rivers is polluting the whole river water.
According to an estimate, the production of one ton of iron needs 44 tons of water and one ton of Aluminium needs 1378 tons. We can easily understand how much water is spent on mining and production of minerals and the extent of pollution.
Normally hills-hillocks, forests, especially the high and broad mountain ranges and broad dense forests are an important factor in monsoon. For example the Raoghat hills of Bastar are very much favourable for monsoon rains. Due to mining in this area, the monsoon is negatively affected and the environmentalists say that this shall cause a reduction of rains in not only Bastar but also in South Chhattisgarh and that these hills are very important in environmental balance in the country. Moreover TATA, Adani and the like are very eager to explore these mines. The central and the state governments are preparing the ground in all ways to facilitate the same.
Rise in global warming is causing extreme heat for a long time, famines and untimely rains and other such natural calamities. It is estimated that the sea water levels are going to rise by 27 cms due to global warming.
Electronic goods are more and more produced that are emanating radiation to an extent more than approved. This is leading to unimaginable diseases. People’s health is severely disturbed. The MNCs are utilising this situation also to mint profits. They are spreading the health sector and are exploiting the people through super-specialty hospitals. They are looting people’s money in the name of various people’s health schemes with the support of the exploitive governments.
On the other hand the governments are establishing tourist centres in the interior forest areas. These are the centres of luxury for the rich classes. The culture, traditions, song and dance of the local tribal people is made a commodity in these places. Bad culture is being introduced from other places. The people’s democratic culture is affected. Body trade is being encourages. Diseases such as AIDS might spread to interior areas and to all those visiting these tourist centres. So our party is severely opposing the establishment of such tourist centres. Capitalist imperialism is suffocating workers, employees and people to the core. It is putting constant pressure on them and is unleashing intense labour exploitation. It turned human life utmost narrow and is forcing people to visit certain places by week end or month end once in a year. The total situation needs to be changed.
Political leaders, big contractors, timber mafia, mining mafia, forest and police officers collaborate and are smuggling timber in a big way from National Parks, Reserve Parks. The Hasdeo forest and other such ever green forests are being indiscriminately cut for industrial purposes. Forest animals are being hunted in a big way with the help of forest and police officers.
On the other hand the central and the state governments are chasing the tribal and farmer people in the name of parks, tiger reserves, reserve forests and centers of protection of wild animals. They are trampling the right to life of the tribal people. The anti-development governments and imperialist sponsored NGOs are making ill propaganda that tribal people are a danger for the protection of forest and wild animals. This is absolutely not a fact. In fact, the tribal people living in the forests for generations are the protectors and conservators of the forests, the bio-diversity and environment. Tribal people are the children of forests. They are entangled with the forest. Their life and livelihood are entwined with forest. The forests and forest animals survive due to them and their struggles. But now when they are being displaced, one must thing how to protect the forests, environment and bio-diversity. This is not the problem of tribal people alone. It concerns the existence of the whole human race. Therefore the people of the country and foreign countries need to fight against all the schemes such as the pro-imperialist, pro-comprador bureaucratic capitalists and pro-feudal classes development models, heavy mining, industries and construction of dams that displace tribal people. Anyone who causes damage to environment must be chased away from the forest. One must be prepared to retaliate together with the people and armed retaliation with the available weapons. We must develop the same. We call upon the youth to recruit in a big way into PLGA in the areas of revolutionary movement under the leadership of our party and take part in intensify-expand people’s war/guerrilla war to all corners of the country and to come forward to join hands with the people.
Imperialists, comprador bureaucratic capitalists and landlords cause severe harm to environment for their profits. They indulge in sound, water an air pollution. The bureaucratic Modi government at the centre recently amended the Acts that provide action on such persons against the interests of the workers, peasants, middle class and tribal people and the country and in the interests of the comprador bureaucratic capitalists and imperialist MNCs. All the amendments to the Environment (Preservation) Act 1986, Water (Pollution prevention and control) Act 1974, Air (pollution prevention, air control) Act 1981 are meant to protect the imperialists, comprador capitalists and landlords in violation of these Acts. These amendments leave capitalists who indulge in environmental, water and air pollution without punishment. There is only a nominal fine. However no capitalist was sent to jail even before the amendments. These Acts provided a basis for people’s struggles and the present amendments give indiscriminate powers to the capitalists. They shall indulge in environmental destruction. Environment shall fall into further crisis. Our party calls upon the people and people’s organisations of the country to fight against the pro-capitalist amendments in these Acts.
Our party is committed to preservation of bio-diversity and environment comprised of forests and all kinds of plant species. PLGA, Mass Organisations and RPCs are working together with the people under the leadership of our party for this. They are raising the consciousness of the people. The Forest Protection Department of our people’s governments is specially concentrating on this aspect. We come in the way of any public or private scheme that displaces the people and causes harm to environment and bio-diversity. We call upon the environmentalists, biologists, scientists, democrats, civil rights organisations, social organisations and tribal social organisations to come and work with us in this regard. We opine that we need to build strong movements all over the country for protection of environment and bio-diversity and take up struggles in the direction of achieving various demands. On the other hand we wish to say that New Democratic India that would be established by accomplishing New Democratic Revolution in the path of Protracted People’s War shall guarantee the protection of forest, environment and bio-diversity.
Q — Similarly, many of the areas in which your Party and the PLGA are active are rich in natural resources, such as coal and bauxite. These resources are sought-after by large multinational capitalist corporations, who are invited by the fascist old Indian state to steal the resources for themselves, and many people are forced from their homes to give these corporations access to the resources. Can you go into more detail about the practices of imperialism in India, and how the CPI (Maoist) and PLGA resists this imperialism?
A — Our country is not a poor one but it is a country of poor people. there are green forests in our country. There are ever flowing rivers, fertile cultivable lands, invaluable, abundant mineral resources. This apart, there are crores of toiling workers and farmers. Crores of government and private employees, lakhs of educated and intellectual toilers and crores of youth are there in the country. 700 kinds of indigenous, tribal people constitute 8.5 percent of the population. But, majority of the people of the country are suffering from hunger, illiteracy, superstitions, ill health, unemployment, poverty and other such problems. They are fighting in various forms to solve the fundamental livelihood problems and for democratic rights. The natural wealth, resources, the abundant labour power and local technology is not being used in the interests of the people of the country the initiative and efficiency of the broad masses is not explored but their democratic rights are supressed in the interests of a few comprador bureaucratic capitalists, landlords and imperialist MNCs.
To be more specific, there are abundant natural wealth and mineral resources not only in the forests and semi-forest areas of the indigenous, tribal and non-tribal people of the country but in the areas of revolutionary movement, i.e., the areas where the Party, PLGA, Mass Organisations and in some areas the RPCs are working such as the states of West Bung, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (Western Ghats). India produces 90 kinds of minerals such as iron, coal, bauxite, mica, manganese, silver, gold, lime stone, granite, Aluminium, copper and cement. Procurement of diamonds is going on as a big trade. India happens to be one of the 5 big producers of important minerals. 25 percent of mineral resources of India are in Jharkhand. 70 percent of the bauxite resources and 28 percent of iron ore resources re in Odisha. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have coal and bauxite mines. Iron, mica, gold, diamonds, coal, Uranium, bauxite, Corundum, dolomite and cassiterite are abundant in Bastar and Sarguja of Chhattisgarh. There 9 crores of tons of iron ore in Surjagarh hills of Maharashtra. There are several mineral resources in both the forest and plain areas of almost all the states.
The exploitation of these resources started and spread right from the time of British occupation of India. The British declared their authority on the forests, minerals, land and water resources through various Acts (such as the India Forest Act 1867, Forest Act 1878, Land Acquisition Act 1894, India Forest Act 1927). The loot of natural resources was intense in the phase of industrial capital and finance capital when there was intense exploitation and oppression and cruel political authority. Political suppression too intensified during this time including exploitation of forcible cheap labour. Agricultural policy of the country was changed according to the needs of the market for colonialists and their world market. Large forests were cut for laying Railway lines. British imperialists allowed TATA, Birla and other such comprador big capitalists of the country to establish industries for their war needs during World War I and thus they too joined the loot. They started large scale iron ore and coal mining for iron and steel industries.
India became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country after transfer of power in 1947 and since then, it had been under the indiscriminate exploitation and oppression of several imperialist countries. The Indian feudal, comprador capitalist classes that seized state power in collaboration with the imperialists have been serving them and are unleashing indiscriminate exploitation and oppression. With the change of political power, the Indian comprador capitalist, feudal class changed into comprador bureaucratic capitalist class. Whichever parliamentary parties those belong to, the central and the state governments that represent the exploitive ruling classes of our country are implementing the policies of economy, industry, minerals, agriculture, education and health in favour of imperialist, comprador bureaucratic capitalist and feudal classes. Those are creating infrastructure facilities in favour of them and are following domestic and foreign internal policies. Those are implementing LPG policies in all sectors since 1991.
See these examples! Indian government established National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in 1958 to look after survey of mineral resources, mining, production, sale, exports, establishment of steel industries and other such things. This made an agreement with Japan Steel Mill in 1961 and vacated 22 tribal villages to start iron mines in Bailadilla in Dantewada district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh state, the present Dandakaranya struggle area. No one was provided rehabilitation. Since production started in 1968, the iron ore from Bailadilla is being looted at a dead cheap rate of Rs. 50 to Rs.400 per ton by Japan, China and Korea imperialists. ESSAR and other comprador bureaucratic capitalist companies are also looting it. You must have been aware that iron ore costs Rs.5600 to Rs.10000 per ton in the world market. Iron ore needed for mini Steel Plants and sponge iron industries is not given at least at the export price to the small and medium kind capitalists of Chhattisgarh. This led to the closure of nearly 150 industries and ten thousand workers are on the streets. The mines are being spread further. There are a lot of such examples.
More than two dozen of goods trains move on the Kirandul-Visakhapatnam Railway line built in the name of ‘development’ and to provide facility to the people and there is only a single passenger train. What for is the Railway line claimed to be a big engineering feat? The rise in water and air pollution is leading to the danger of ill health and destruction of the people, cattle, forest animals and fish. Presently Dalli-Raoghat-Jagadalpur Railway line is being laid in the same name of development. In fact the railway line is meant for shifting of mineral sources from the proposed mines in Rajnandgaon and Bastar divisions of Chhattisgarh and armed forces.
The government allowed the laying of ESSAR pipeline of a comprador capitalist company by reducing Rs.550 per ton to supply iron ore through rail costing only Rs.80 per ton. Iron ore powder is being shifted through pipelines from Bailadilla to Visakhapatnam. Water resources of Bastar are going waste into the Bay of Bengal for this shift. This is causing water shortage in Bastar. ESSAR company used land in a stretch of 20 meters for laying the pipeline at a lengthof 267 kms but did not pay a single paise for the displaced. It also cut thousands of hectares of forests.
Here is one more example. The government is not supplying the necessary coal produced in Chhattisgarh to the industries of the small and medium kind capitalists of the state. Moreover the Modi government stopped supply of coal since August in the name of coal crisis for the past 6 months. The Chief Minister (of Congress party that is in opposition at the centre) himself appealed in vain. Hundreds of small and medium kind industries are in the danger of closure. Meanwhile in the name of solving coal crisis big comprador capitalists are being supplied with large amounts of coal and on the other is importing coal at high prices from other countries. This is a traitorous, anti-people policy of the government.
There is yet another surprising instance. Government sold a stretch of 23 kms of Sivnadh river that flows through Durg district of Chhattisgarh to Radias Water Limited in 1988. The conditions of the agreement mention the responsibility to purchase water from the company. The company laid fencing on both sides of the river to the extent it took on lease. The people of the scores of villages on both sides of the river are not utilising the river waters and have been deceived. Who gave the authority to the government to sell the natural river and river waters to private companies? It is interesting to know that the farmer people destroyed the fencing declaring their authority on the river.
In Raigarh district of the same state comprador bureaucratic capitalist Jindal built his empire of Steel and electric industries. He displaced ten thousand farmer families from 1990 to 2010 for this purpose. These farmers and the agricultural labourers became migrant labour. Jindal acquired the lands of these villages with the support of the revenue administration of the government. He also seized the pool that the villagers have been using for generations.
The central and the state governments are handing over the public sector industries in the name of disinvestment as a part of the LPG policies at dead cheap prices to the comprador capitalists and MNCs. Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) one of the vital public sector industries said to be Indian Navaratnas costing Rs.5000 crores had been handed over to Sterlite company with 50 percent partnership by the then BJP government in the centre in 2003. In addition to it, the mine pot bauxite mines in Ambikapur also were given to Anil Agarwal of Sterlite company. There are lot of such examples from each and every state all over the country.
The exploitation of these resources that began during the rule of Congress party intensified further during the BJP rule. Since 1991 when LPG policies came to be implemented in a full fledged manner, the central and the state governments are making hundreds and thousands of MoUs with comprador bureaucratic capitalists and imperialist MNCs for the export of minerals, for the construction of heavy industries, for mining of various kinds of minerals and construction of big dams. The central and the various state governments are holding summits with imperialist, comprador capitalist corporate companies and are opening the doors wide for exploitation of resources. Forums are held in various imperialist countries to make such agreements. Since Modi came to power he is further speeding and intensifying the exploitation of these resources in the name of ‘Make in India’, ‘Make in Maharashtra’ and ‘Make in Gujarat’ and such others. These ‘Make in’ festivals are being held frequently in all the states. Let us see some instances to understand how this game takes place.
According to an estimate, since the transfer of power the central and the state governments displaced 5 crore people in the name of ‘development’ schemes. In Jharkhand 15 lakh tribal people have been displaced in the past three decades for the construction of industries, mines, dams, roads and railway lines. While 40 percent of them are tribal people, 25 percent are Dalit people. 75 percent of the displaced are not rehabilitated. The rest of the 25 percent have been provided nominal rehabilitation. Similarly, 40 percent of the land acquired from the displaced is of the tribal people. since 2005, we see that Arcelor Mittal, POSCO, Vedanta, Sterlite industries (Vedanta resources), Phelps Dodge, ACC Riotento, CRA, De Beers, Anglo-American exploration, BHP Minerals, Proem Alcon, Norse Hydro, Aston mining, Lloyd company and other such imperialist Steel and Mining corporate companies have been given permission in a big way to take up survey of minerals such as iron, coal, gold, diamonds, bauxite, mica and silver in Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In addition to these, Indian comprador bureaucratic capitalists and mining corporates such as TATA, Jindal, Birla, ESSAR, Adani, Nouka and other such companies also issued permissions for mining.
This alone gives us the understanding as to how and how much the corporate companies gain super profits. Utkal Alumina Company is going tomint Rs.2,80,000 crores in the coming 25 years at a cost of Rs.4500 crores through mining in 8000 acres.
The governments gave permission to 760 Special Economic Zones (SEZ) all over the country by 30th November 2007. The number must have increased by now. Para-military, police forces, goonda gangs and brokers have been deployed to forcibly seize 2 lakh hectares of land from the farmers and tribal people of 20 states for this. Mukesh Ambani displaced 2 lakh 50 thousand people of 35 villages in Navi Mumbai for Reliance SEZ and seized 35 thousand acres of land.
Agricultural lands and forest lands of the farmers and the tribal people of various states of the country are being utmost bureaucratically seized for the sake of industrial corridors, coastal corridors, export zones, ports and other such things and Express highways, Super highways, Airports, Sagarmala, bullet trains-speed trains and entertainment parks necessary for those are being laid as a part of infrastructure.
Modi government gave permission to comprador capitalist Gautam Adani to construct ports, Airports, 900 cold storages and 900 multiplex cinema halls. It gave heavy subsidies to take up mining. The central and the state governments leased two deposits spread over lakhs of acres in Hasdeo Aranda coal mines in Hasdeo forest in Korba, Sarguja and Surajpur districts. People are making intense struggles against the cutting of forest by Adani under the banner of ‘Hasdeo Jungle Bachao’ committee. Valuable teak and other trees, animals and floral species are on the verge of extinction.
In Odisha, the central and the state governments together issued 97 thousand hectares of lands on 600 mining leases. But the fact that 46 percent of families in Odisha are living below the poverty line tells us that the profits out of mining are going to corporate companies, political leaders and higher officials and no one else.
The farmers of Jagatsingpur have been putting down the attempts of the government to displace 22 thousand farmers to acquire 4 thousand acres of land for the Steel Plant of a MNC POSCO of South Korea. Vedanta Sterlite Company is making severe attempts to explore bauxite from Niyamgiri hills costing the identity of the Kuvvi tribal people. for the purpose it deployed Para-military forces in the area and expanded carpet security. The tribal peasantry is daringly facing this. Bauxite mining and industries of domestic and foreign corporate companies such as Vedanta Resources, Vedanta Aluminium, Sterlite India, Odisha Mining Corporation, South-West Odisha Mining Corporation, Hindalco, Birla group, Utkal Aluminimum Industry Limited (UAIL), ALCAN of Canada and NALCO in Koraput, Bolangir, Kalahandi and Raigarh districts. Thousands of tribal people of primitive tribes of Kasipur, Gopalpur, Gandamardhan, Jajpur, Kalinganagar, Jagatsingpur, Keonjhar and Serengdaga were displaced. The process is still going on.
In the name of nuclear electric industries, thermal electric industries, bauxite mining, industrial, coastal and oil corridors that are utmost dangerous to the survival of the people, natural wealth and the wealth on sea coast is being handed over to the MNCs and comprador capitalists like Adani. Several projects such as Polavaram and Kavvala Tiger zone, Singareni Open cast coal mines and other such several projects are laid in Telangana displacing the tribal people.
Attempts are going on to seize Lakhs of acres of crop lands and forest lands of the tribal people by the Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra governments with the support of the armed forces to implement the agreements with MNCs and comprador capitalists. There are iron ore, quartz, quarries, Silica cell, China clay, Limestone, White clay and Uranium are abundant in the forests and hills on the border of Rajnandgaon, Kanker and Balod districts. Although the people have been firmly facing these mining activities under the leadership of the party, ITBP, BSF camps have been set up in scores of numbers and few of these projects are being run under constant attacks on the people. with the weakening of the people’s movements, mining is going on in Ahladi, Barbaspur, Ari Dongri, Mahamaya, Pallemadi, Chargaon and other mines.
While the various mines in Chhattisgarh have been given to TATA, Jindal, ESSAR, Adani and NECCO Companies on lease the mines in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra have been given for lease to TATA, ESSAR, Arcelor Mittal, Jindal Steel, Vedanta, Lloyd, Riotento, De Beers, BHP Bili tin and other corporate companies.
As we see the exploitive governments are handing over the natural wealth and mineral resources of the country to imperialist MNCs and domestic comprador bureaucratic capitalist companies. Thus lakhs of hectares of crop lands and forest lands are going into the hands of the domestic and foreign corporate companies. Tribal communities such as the Mariah, Koya, Halba, Dhurva, Batra, Koyatur, Koyagal, Korga, Rajgond, Gond, Lohar, Kotadval, Koyyal, Kolam, Pradha, Thoti, Nayakpod, Kondareddy, Kondadora, Bhagatu, Savara, Jatabu, Kuvvi, Kotwal, Koliya, Koyamali, Chenchu, Korval, Korna, Kolha, Kol, Dharu, Kondi, Kondh, Dongaria, Sabara, Komundal, Keriya, Hora, Hokya, Koltal, Kotia, Bil, Bilal, Juvang, Santhal, Munda, Uraov and Ho and non-tribal communities such as Gando, Gasiya, Harara, Marr, Panara, Panka, Pradha, Yadav living in the forests traditionally are going to lose their survival, identity and self-respect. Their language, culture and life style are going to become extinct.
One important aspect needs to be brought to your notice. On one hand agreements are being made to hand over the wealth and natural resources of the country to the imperialists and comprador capitalists and on the other several draconian new Acts have been being made to suppress the movements that arose and are going on against the implementation of these agreements. ‘UAPA’ and NIA have been provided with more powers and the old draconian Acts have been amended. The Chhattisgarh state government brought forth the Chhattisgarh Special People’s Security Act in 2005 itself. Since then thousands were arrested under the Act.
People, especially tribal people of all the states and these areas of the revolutionary movement are fighting relentlessly against the exploitation of these resources. Tribal people are fighting daringly for their right to ‘jal-jungle-zameen’ (water-forest-land) for their right to live, for their existence, identity and self-respect. Party, PLGA and RPCs are standing in support of the struggling people. party is directly and indirectly leading these people’s struggles. It is guiding those struggles. In some places, people themselves are getting down to struggles inspired by the party, PLGA and RPCs and under the influence of the class struggle and people’s war under the leadership of those. Lakhs of people of the country are participating in these people’s struggles. Earlier Salva Judum, Sendra and other repressive campaigns and later Operation Green Hunt in order to eliminate the leadership of these struggles and suppress them, thus facilitate the way for the exploitation of resources and labour, market control and political hegemony. Moreover the campaigns are also intended to total elimination of the RPCs that are the organs of people’s state power that emerged as the ray of hope for the Party, PLGA and the oppressed people of India and the revolutionary movement on the whole. Presently ‘SAMADHAN’ strategic multipronged offensive is going on in the utmost intensive level. As a part of it carpet security is strengthened and expanded. Corporatisation-Militarisation is going on in an intense and speedy manner in Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra (Dandakaranya), Bihar-Jharkhand, Odisha, Telangana, AOB, Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC), Western Ghats. The exploitive ruling classes are laying roads, bridges, pipelines, railway lines on war footing to facilitate the movement of armed forces and to exploit the resources at dead cheap rates, in the name of infrastructure.
People understood that these police camps, roads, bridges and railway lines are only to displace them from their water-forest-land, to eliminate their survival, to loot their resources and to eliminate the RPCs that they fought for a long time and established and are fighting with dare and determination against those. The struggle of the Silinger tribal people of Bastar that is going on militantly for the past 15 months stands in the forefront as an icon of these struggles. Tribal people have been holding indefinite dharna against the new police camps being set up in Parasnadh hill area of Jharkhand, in cut off area of Andhra Odisha border area, in Vechaghat, Gompad, Singaram, Burji, Pusnar, Vechapal, Poosuguppa, Gondod, Gornam and other places of Dandakaranya. State is making brutal attacks on them. Lathi-charge, tear gas, illegal arrests, firing, sabotage and mortar shelling have become an ordinary feature. People are continuing their struggles denying government repression and encountering the government Para-military and police forces. They are obstructing mining. PLGA retaliation is adding to these struggles. The support of the students-youth, tribal and non-tribal people, intellectuals, prominent democrats at various levels is instilling self-confidence and firm determination in these struggles. Thus these people’s struggles, people’s retaliation and people’s war are taken up in coordination and to stop the implementation of the agreements of the governments with corporate companies.
Party and the people stopped the mining in Raoghat that was initiated in the 1990s. TATA had to withdraw its plan to set up a Steel Plant in ten thousand acres of tribal land in Lohandiguda due to the 10 year long people’s resistance. ESSAR Steel plant planned in 4 thousand acres of land of Dhurli, Bhansi and Kamalur villages also had to be withdrawn due to people’s resistance. The construction of Bodhghat mega dam planned on River Indravati is yet pending. People and PLGA under the leadership of the party are coming in the way of many such mining projects.
Heroic people of Singur of West Bung fought back the plan to construct a Nano car industry by TATA through their struggle. The people of Nandigram of the same state chased away a MNC Salem group of Indonesia through their struggle. People of Salbani of West Bung stopped the expansion of Jindal industries through the historic Lalgarh struggle.
Kuvvi tribal people chased Anil Agarwal the owner of Sterlite Vedanta industries from Niyamgiri of Odisha. Comprador rulers indulged in police firing on 2nd January 2006 on the militant demonstration of 15 thousand people of 15 villages against the construction of TATA Steel plant of Kalinganagar and helped for its construction. However the Odiya people are against POSCO in Jagatsingpur. People, intellectuals and artists of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are together fighting against bauxite mining in Visakha, Mali and Devamali hills and Uranium mining in Nallamala mountains.
13 people were murdered and above 100 were injured in brutal firing to suppress the people’s struggle going on in a militant manner against the proposed Sterlite Company in Toothukudi of Tamilnadu. People of Western Ghats are against mining of iron ore mining. The people of Gadchiroli are fighting against mining in Surjagarh, Damkodivahi and Korchi in Maharashtra.
Tribal people of Amdai, Tulad, Taralmetta, Pittodmetta/Nandaraj hill of Bastar are making a relentless struggle against mining.
The central government decided to establish a military base in the name of training centre of the Military in Maad area that happens to be the residence of Mariah tribe one of the ancient tribe in a place called ‘Abuzmaarh’ of Narayanpur district in Bastar division. The earlier BJP government of Chhattisgarh made an agreement to hand over one-fourth of Marh to Indian Army. There are several mineral resources in Marh. This is one of the big strategic areas of the country. The Indian government deployed thousands of Indian Army forces from 2011 to 2013 in Marh and trained them in jungle warfare. The Indian government temporarily stopped the deployment of the Army with the severe protest movement of the people of Dandakaranya, democratic intellectuals, human rights and social organisations of the country.
Large amount of forest land of the states of revolutionary movement is transferred for National Parks, centres for conservation of wild animals, tigers, leopards, reserves of bison, tourist centers and field firing ranges for which hundreds of villages are turned into a graveyard. Thousands of families and lakhs of people are being displaced. People are opposing all these attempts.
Tribal people achieved certain rights in the form of Acts through struggles going on for decades. Few rights have been given to the tribal people in the Indian Constitution. In fact these Acts, rights are never totally implemented. But they have been a base to formulate demands for struggle. Few of the Acts possessing such pro-people aspects are the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the 1996 PESA, the rights of Gram Sabhas, Forest Lands Identity Act 2006, Forest Conservation Act 2013. Various state governments formulated various Acts in the respective times banning the purchase or seizure of tribal lands in areas of Fifth Schedule. PESA, Forest Lands Identity Act 2006, Forest Conservation Act 2013 clearly mentioned that the lands of tribal people must not be seized by the central and the state governments for the sake of any kind of development plan, industries, mines and dams without the permission of Gram Sabhas.
India signed the paper of statement of rights of tribal people issued by the UNO General Assembly on 13th September 2007. Section 30 of the paper clearly said that no military actions should be taken up on the lands of the tribal people without their consent and permission.
However, until date, none of the lands allotted and leased to the comprador capitalists and imperialist MNCs and also the lands allotted for the central and state government projects had been given the permission of the Gram Sabhas. All those have been issued by the governments in the name of permission of fake Gram Sabhas without the knowledge of the concerned people. permission of Gram Sabhas was not asked for the camps of the police, Para-military and Army forces set up in our struggle areas. People are fighting to implement these rights, to lift all the camps established without the permission of the Gram Sabhas and to not construct any projects without the permission of the Gram Sabhas. The ‘Pathalgarhi’ struggle that started in Jharkhand and North Chhattisgarh with the slogan ‘our village our government’ spread to Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and South Chhattisgarh on the borders.
Now the fascist Modi government trampled the rights of the tribal people through issuing Forest Conservation Ordinance on 24th June 2022. This is a gross violation of tribal people’s rights, the Constitution and tramples the same. Through the ordinance the central government can allot the lands of tribal farmers and the forest lands to the domestic and foreign corporate companies and for public-private projects without the permission of the Gram Sabhas and the land owners. The party has the important task to expand, unite, consolidate these people’s struggles against the anti-people, anti-tribal fascist policies and Acts of the government and take them forward towards the direction of forming an anti-imperialist, anti-comprador bureaucratic capitalist, anti-feudal people’s struggle front all over the country and to mould them in the direction of intensifying and expanding people’s war.
In fact, the struggles against displacement, the Para-military and Special police camps are entwined with the problem of land and existence. All these are anti-imperialist, anti-comprador bureaucratic, anti-feudal struggles. These struggles have to be linked with People’s War-Guerrilla War and intensified and expanded.
All what the exploitive ruling classes are doing in the name of development is nothing but their intense exploitation and not the development of the people. It is nothing but an anti-development and traitorous model to indiscriminately loot the resources of the people that devastates them, destructs the environment and puts the country in debt. It is the model that utilises the natural wealth and resources not for the entire people and the country but for the imperialists and comprador exploitive ruling classes. We need to oppose and fight back this model of development. The genuine model of development shall be to conserve the resources, develop them, protect environment, utilise them in a discriminate manner for the needs of all the people and the country and for the future generations. The New Democratic state power that is built by destroying the state power of imperialism and comprador exploitive ruling classes through Protracted People’s War in the leadership of the proletarian party alone shall implement the genuine model of development. Only then we can achieve genuine all round development of the people. Only thus we can control the indiscriminate exploitation of the resources and preserve them. These attempts began and are continuing in the leadership of the organs of people’s state power under the leadership of the party in the areas of struggle in a primary level.
Q — One major problem facing the International Communist Movement is the problem of revisionism. Revisionism comes in many forms: Trotskyism, Khrushchevism, Electoralism and Dengism are just a few. How large of a problem is revisionism in India, which parties would you judge to be revisionist in nature, and how does the CPI (Maoist) combat revisionism in India?
A — Yes. As you said revisionism is one big problem that the International Communist Movement is facing. Since Marxism came into being as the theoretical weapon of the proletariat, it came forth in various forms in the name of Marxism itself. It is still coming forth and shall do so in future also. The danger of revisionism shall arise until the success of the World Socialist Revolution and also until Communism is established. Whichever form it arises, its theoretical origins lie in bourgeois/petty bourgeois ideology. The interests of the revisionists harm the interests of the proletariat and the toilers and help those of the bourgeoisie. Thus revisionist practice does not help to destroy the capitalist-anti-development classes and to prepare for armed revolution or lead it but to the existence and status quo of the present society. As long as these exist between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie during revolution and after it, it is manifests in various forms in the proletarian party also as a conflict. We must enlighten the Party ranks politically and develop the political consciousness of the people that as long as communists are needed for the society the danger of revisionism exists in various forms. We have to unite and strengthen the party fighting against revisionism. We need to take up several cultural revolutions to transform Socialist democracy into a great force under the proletarian dictatorship in the country/countries where political power is seized, with appropriate line and policies.
Marx-Engels formulated the proletarian revolutionary theory of Marxism. Since then while on one hand the bourgeois theories attack Marxism, on the other hand, there are many in history who claimed themselves to be Marxists and distorted it in various forms and opposed its essence.
By the end of the last decade of the 19th century, Marxism defeated all the bourgeois, petty bourgeois opportunist trends in the International Communist Movement and achieved a stable place as the scientific theory of the international proletariat. Marx-Engels made a fierce struggle against these trends for nearly half a century and defeated them.
After capitalism transformed into monopoly capitalism-imperialism, in the process of creative application of the fundamental principles of Marxism to the concrete practice of Russian revolution and world proletarian revolution, in the process of making a theoretical, political struggle against the various kinds of revisionists such as Bernstein, Narodniks, Economists, Mensheviks, legal Marxists, liquidators, Kautsky, Trotsky and dogmatic Marxists such as Plekhanov, Lenin preserved the proletarian science of Marxism, enriched it and enriched it to a new and higher stage. Thus it developed into Marxism-Leninism. Lenin considered revisionists as the agents of imperialism hidden in the ranks of proletarian movement. He criticised and fought against them.
Comrade Stalin preserved and developed Marxism-Leninism through the struggle against the Trotskyites, Zinovinists, Bukharinists, bourgeois agents and various kinds of opportunism hidden in the Soviet Communist party.
The Communist Party of China under the leadership of Comrade Mao made ten internal struggles against left, right and opportunist trends in the process of Chinese Revolution and defeated them. It accomplished New Democratic Revolution and built Socialism. Thus it showed a path for a change in the semi-colonial, semi-feudal systems in Asia, Africa and Latin America and to the New Democratic Revolutions and Socialist Revolutions in those countries. It developed the path of Protracted People’s War. In the process, as a part of the struggle in the international plane against international revisionism, it fought against imperialist agent Tito and revisionists such as Togliatti and Thorez and preserved Marxism-Leninism and developed it.
It led the international theoretical struggle against Khrushchev’s modern revisionism through the Great Debate in the leadership of Comrade Mao. Great Debate helped the genuine proletarian revolutionary forces fighting against revisionism to form new Marxist-Leninist parties on the basis of Marxist-Leninist principles all over the world and facilitated the path to advance. During this period, Comrade Mao led a two line struggle against the main centre of the modern revisionists of the capitalist roaders in the leadership of the diehard revisionist Li Shao-chi. Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was taken up in the leadership of Comrade Mao in the CPC against modern revisionism. GPCR helped as a catalyst to sensitise the theoretical, political struggle against revisionism in various Communist Parties in the international plane. Lin Piao who stood in the forefront together with Mao in GPCR spoke leftist jargon in the veil of Mao Thought and brought forth the revisionist line in no time and tried to seize power in a traitorous manner. He proved to be a conspirator. After the demise of Comrade Mao, the Hua-Deng modern revisionist clique led a counter revolutionary conspiracy, seized power and restored Chinese capitalism in the place of Socialism and bureaucratic capitalism in the place of Socialist state. After Russia, revisionism gained hegemony in China in the condition of which the Communist Parties of several countries of the world degenerated into right opportunist parties and revisionist parties. Revolutionary movements of few countries also came to an end.
The modern revisionist line of Deng caused extreme harm to the revolutionary communist movement in our country also. Especially the CPI (ML) Liberation in the leadership of Vinod Misra turned Dengist anddegenerated into a revisionist party. The DV group (one of the groups in the earlier UCCRI ML) is a Dengist revisionist splinter group. Our party and several Maoist parties and forces of the world took up the historic lessons of GPCR, and condemned the modern revisionism of Deng with the utmost powerful weapon of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. These parties are also fighting back the various forms of revision that came forth due to the influence of Deng including the revisionism in the veil of Maoism and all shades of revisionism. CPI (ML) People’s War, one of the two revolutionary streams of the united CPI (Maoist) commented wrongly about the second world in regard to the three world theory for some time. Anyhow it soon rectified its mistake.
Later the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) brought forth ‘Prachanda path’ in the leadership of Prachanda-Bhattarai traitorous clique. The Revolutionary Communist Party USA in the leadership of Bob Avakian brought forth another modern revisionist theory, Avakianism. Several Maoist parties and forces including our party opposed and theoretically exposed these two trends.
We need to specially expose the China Social-imperialism that is the China revisionism and fake Socialism that came forth with the fake slogan of ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’. Modern revisionist parties in power in the name of Communist parties in Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea and the modern revisionist parties that do not hold high the proletarian international flag in their country and internationally, that do not implement Socialism, that do not strive for the success of World Socialist Revolution shall not be genuine Communist parties. They help to continue the capitalist systems as opportunist parties. We must expose the opportunism of these parties. Thus we must develop the revolutionary consciousness and alertness of the people of the world. Our party program declared the correct Marxist position about proletarian internationalism and the relations between the countries.
Coming to our country, our party was formed from amidst the theoretical, political struggle against revisionism and neo-revisionism. Later it countered right-opportunist, left adventurist and many kinds of opportunism and revisionism that arise inside and outside the party, fought against those trends inside and outside the party and reached the present state.
After the success of Great October Revolution in Russia in the leadership of the great Marxist teacher Lenin in 1917, Marxist-Leninist theory became popular in our country. Communist Party of India (CPI) was formed in 1925 under the influence of the theory-revolution and as a result of the heroic militant class struggles of the proletariat against British imperialism. Although there were numerous opportunities, due to the wrong line followed by the party leadership at the time, it could not play the leading role in the national liberation-democratic movement. Communist party always denied to recognise the actual class nature of the Gandhian, bourgeois, feudal leadership. Therefore it failed in adopting the genuine path of revolution, in bearing revolutionary initiative and in fighting with the leadership. Therefore it wrongly understood the comprador bourgeois class as national bourgeois class, tailed Gandhian leadership and were unwilling to adopt genuine strategy-tactics to combine the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete practice of Indian Revolution. The leadership made grave mistakes in analysing the classes in Indian society. It failed severely in identifying with the heroic broad masses, especially the peasantry. It rejected to learn from the successfully advancing China Revolution in the leadership of Comrade Mao Tse-tung and the CPC and to creatively apply the path of PPW that it adopted and its great experiences to the concrete conditions of our country.It did not take up the path of armed struggle for seizure of political power in national liberation movement. By the time the objective revolutionary situation in India is very favourable. But the right opportunist leadership of the Communist Party was always unwilling to take up the correct path of PPW for armed national liberation and democracy. In fact the leadership of the Communist Party helped the bourgeois class to divert the anti-imperialist militant movement of the people. It entered into an opportunist alliance with the Congress, was not independent in the United Front, felt that everything is possible through unity and took the revolutionary people as a tail to the Gandhian leadership. Moreover, the Communist party leadership betrayed the great Telangana peasant armed struggle and fell neck deep into the mire of parliamentarism and revisionism in the deceptive name of utilising parliament. In fact the objective condition was unprecedentedly favourable to advance Agrarian Revolution and it had the path of great PPW and the success of China revolution showed by Comrade Mao. But they acted otherwise. However, heroic ranks of the communist party joined hands with the struggling people and led several revolutionary struggles. Thousands of comrades laid down their valuable lives to achieve the great cause of accomplishing New Democratic Revolution in India as a part of the World Socialist Revolution.
Genuine revolutionary forces representing the revolutionary ranks in India fought against the wrong right opportunist, revisionist lines of the leadership that was leading CPI, against its backstabs and later on with the modern revisionist CPI (M). this struggle attained total new dimensions in the end of 1950s and in the 60s. The Great Debate taken up under the leadership of the CPC in the leadership of Comrade Mao Tse-tung against the Soviet modern revisionism of the leadership of Khrushchev stood as the symbol of this new beginning. Just like how the Great Debate intensified and led to the GPCR that shook the earth, the struggle against the modern revisionist CPI (M) leadership further intensified and reached the state of divorcing the party. The beginning of GPCR stood as a milestone for this process. In the direct influence of this process, the forces that represented the struggle against initially the CPI revisionism and later the modern revisionism of CPI (M) leadership supported Marxism-Leninism-Mao Thought (now Maoism) theoretically and more importantly in their revolutionary practice and internalised it. Thus Comrade CM, Comrade KC and the great leaders of the first rank and Maoist forces came on to the stage in a large number to condemn the program of the 7th Congress of CPI (M) as revisionism. The great Naxalbari rebellion that took place in 1967 May under the leadership of Comrade Charu Mazumdar became the opening for ‘Spring Thunder in India’. Since then, the history of Communist movement in our country took a new qualitative turn. It not only greatly exposed revisionism and permanently divorced from it but, for the first time, stood as the symbol for conscious application of the bright path of seizure of political power through PPW, the path of MLM and that Comrade Mao already put forth.
Thus Marxism-Leninism-Maoism stood as a line of theoretical political demarcation between the revisionists and genuine revolutionaries of India. Naxalbari inspired armed peasant struggles at various levels in nearly ten states of the country. In the process genuine revolutionaries organised as two main revolutionary streams in 1969 — the CPI (ML) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). The 8th Congress of CPI (ML) was held in 1970. However, due to the left tactics that the party followed at that time, the right and left alien trends internally and due to the brutal offensive of the enemy all over the country, the movement temporarily setback. Within a short while after the the Congress revolutionary disrupter Satyanarayana Singh attacked Comrade Charu Mazumdar with his right opportunist line in 1971 and split the party. West Bengal police arrested Comrade CM on 28th July 1972 and murdered him in police custody. Most of the leadership in the Central Committee and the various State Committees of the CPI (ML) and ranks of the party either became martyrs, were arrested or scattered. With lack of a centre of the party it became organisationally very weak. There was theoretical confusion. CPI (ML) split several times. Many parties/groups were formed. The central level leaders and the respective state leadership left without being arrested worked with the theory and politics as per their understanding. During this time several strong trends of right and left adventurism came forth. In the later period on one hand there were attempts of unity of genuine communist revolutionaries and on the other once again splits and formation of new groups.
Although the movement temporarily setback, the revolutionary movement gradually gained strength and advanced amidst several ups and downs, learning lessons from earlier experiences and daringly facing enemy repression making enormous sacrifices in the leadership of the CPI (ML) and MCC. Both theseMaoist revolutionary streams made determined fight against the various kinds of opportunism inside and outside the revolutionary all over the country, based on the correct path of revolution and continued the legacy of all the revolutionary aspects of the Indian Communist movement.
On the other hand the two main revolutionary streams united the genuine revolutionaries working as separate parties/groups, sections and as individuals and ultimately merged into the CPI (Maoist) on 21st September 2004 as a single centre of Indian proletarian vanguard. This attained utmost importance in the history of Indian Revolution. With the merger of CPI (ML) Naxalbari with the CPI (Maoist) on 1st of May 2014, the unity of various revolutionaries of India as revolutionary parties and groups is complete.
Now let me tell you the stand of our Party towards the various left parties in India in the present conditions.
The main theoretical task of the party today is to theoretically face and defeat the post-modern trends, especially the revisionist trends. If our party does not fight against revisionism theoretically and politically, it would be impossible to accomplish NDR in the country. Various revisionists are trying to divert the advanced sections from the path of revolution. They are trying to divert the revolutionary people into parliamentary, legal and peaceful paths, with their post-modernist revisionist ideologies.
When the “left alliance” of the CPI and the CPI (M) has been in power in Kerala and West Bengal, the ruling class parties in the centre and the states that formed the government with their support followed imperialist dictated, pro-comprador ruling class policies. Especially when the CPI (M) was in power in West Bengal, TATA, Birla, Ambani, Jindal and other comprador bureaucratic capitalists of the country and MNCs like Salem were given the lands of the farmers at dead cheap prices by forcibly acquiring them. These social fascists deployed police and Para-military forces on the people’s struggles and unleashed severe repression. They indulged in fake encounters and massacres. Murders, atrocities, loot, house burning, arrests, tortures and corruption were normal. In Kerala where it is presently in power also, the government is implementing pro-imperialist policies and handing over the natural resources at dead cheap price. It is suppressing our party, people and workers opposing their policies under iron heel. They prove through their anti-people suppressive policies that they are nothing less than the BJP and Congress in serving imperialism.
Presently CPI and CPM and the ruling class (including the regional ruling class) parties have a considerable influence on large sections of the Indian organised working class. Especially the majority of workers and employee organisations of public sector industries, banks, insurance companies, coal and iron mines and other such sectors are under the leadership or influence of these parties. They are in the way of building a militant working class movement in India. The Trade Unions of these two parties are confined to give call for General strike one or two times a year. In the present conditions where the onslaught of international Finance Capital is intensifying day by day and the central and the state governments are trampling the rights that the workers achieved through struggle for decades, conditions are favourable to build a strong workers’ movement. But the two parties are a hurdle for the same. At times they murmur about privatisation of public sector enterprises, Foreign Direct Investment in the retail sector, retrenchment of workers and casual-contract labour system, in practice they act as agents supporting these polices. Our party exposes their class collaborationist politics. Our weakness in urban-working class sectors is confining the development of People’s War. Our Party needs to advance in the direction of building a strong revolutionary Trade Union movement.
The Central Committee of our party called upon all the left parties and forces for united struggles against the state repression unleashed by the exploitive rulers on the oppressed people, the attacks of the Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist forces, against displacement and other such people’s problems. In some states our Mass Organisations are taking part together with the Mass Organisations of CPI.
Now I wish to tell you about the various opportunist parties in the veil of MLM.
CPI (ML) Liberation and CPI (ML) Red Star follow right opportunist path in the veil of MLM. These parties left armed struggle, uphold parliamentarism and help the bourgeois parties and revisionist parties such as the CPI, CPM and SUCI. CPI (ML) Liberation took up the revisionist path of Deng in early 1980s and left armed revolution. These parties make heinous, cruel ill propaganda that our party is violent. We need to expose the real character of these two parties much more among the people.
Some Trotskyites working in the working class make ill propaganda that India turned to be a capitalist country, that PPW is outdated and that CPI (Maoist) is a terrorist organisation. They are not at all concerned with rural India and are not even taking up the working class struggles in a militant manner. They allege the PPW and the CPI (Maoist) that is leading it and join the ruling classes in propaganda.
Apart from these there are few more ML parties that follow right opportunist line. All these parties propagate MLM theoretically and politically. They mobilise the people in their areas of work on economic problems and political problems in legal methods. Their people’s struggles are never militant. These parties are open organisations. They show reasons like revolutionary conditions is yet not matured, that the people are not yet ready for armed struggle, that there is no spate of revolution in the country or that they are making preparations for revolution and confine themselves to legal, partial struggles and postpone People’s war indefinitely. CP Reddy, Satyanarayana Singh led two or three groups (New Democracy, Janashakti and others) have armed squads in undivided Andhra Pradesh. Anyway, they utilised the squads only to collect funds from the contractors, for votes andto maintain the hegemony of their groups but not to make armed struggle. As per their understanding taking up military formations to make people’s war is left adventurism. Almost all these parties got into the mire of elections in the name of tactics. Forces of the erstwhile UCCRI-ML factions are seen here and there in the country but they are not building class struggle anywhere in the country. They do not exist anywhere except in Punjab.
Our party had been making a severe theoretical, political struggle with CPI, CPM, and also Liberation, Red Star, New Democracy, Janashakti, Lin Piao group and other ML groups. At times we even had physical conflicts with New Democracy, Janashakti and Liberation groups. Subsequently we overcame this physical confrontation through mutual discussion and at times through unilateral ceasefire from our side. We are making political, theoretical struggle against the right opportunist line of these parties and making efforts to form broad United Forums together with their Mass Organisations and other organisations on the economic and political problems of the broad oppressed people, especially of the farmers, workers, middle classes, against the Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist forces, against the repression of the exploitive governments, against displacement and for civil rights. We are working together in such forms. We are ready to work together in future. We need to make more initiative to work together with all the forces that are ready to fight against the Indian exploitive ruling classes, against theiranti-people, traitorous fascist policies and in the interests of National Democratic Revolution and for building United forums.
We are aware that there are activists in the lower level in the various right ML parties who work with an aspiration for revolution and dedicated to the people. Depending on the development of People’s War in the countrythey might think of the genuine path of revolution. We hope they would break the chains of revisionist, post-modernist, right opportunist and left adventurist ideologies and unite with genuine revolutionary communists. We also wish they would travel in this direction.
On the whole, we can advance the revolutionary movement towards success only by making a theoretical fight against revisionism in various forms, exposing the real nature of the bankrupt leadership and defeating it. Our party developed only by exposing and defeating the right and left opportunism through theoretical, political struggle inside and outside the party since the Naxalbari Spring Thunder until date. Our party could sustain amidst the ebb and flows and develop only through making efforts to the best of its strength with a proper Marxist stand in the theoretical struggle in the International Communist camp. Therefore the Program and Constitution and the Political Resolution of our party wrote clearly about the importance of the struggle against revisionism. Although we faced betrayal, blows and temporary defeats from the revisionists in the veil of the Communist Party who represented the bourgeois class even in the theoretical sector not only in practice but until establishing Communism through the process of Socialism by destroying world capitalist system, ultimately we shall defeat them in the theoretical sector and all the sectors and definitely achieve success. This is what we tell always not only in our party but also in the revolutionary camp and to the people. This is what we tell even at the international plane.
Q — There are some, including some who view themselves as “communists”, who hold a defeatist attitude towards the people’s war in India, and some proclaim it has no hope of victory. Could you explain to our readers why we should be hopeful and optimistic in our view of the people’s war in India, and, despite setbacks, what advances and gains the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and PLGA have made in recent times?
A — Yes. You are correct. Some individuals including those who claim themselves to be ‘Communists’ have a defeatist attitude towards People War in India. Some else lack confidence in its victory. They lack the primary Marxist understanding that imperialism and the semi-colonial, semi-feudal system of India that slaves it is in decline and the People’s War going on in India as a part of Socialism and World Socialist Revolution is the sprouts. It is because they lack dialectical historical materialist perspective towards the rules of social development. They did not understand the rules of social development. They analyse and understand the conditions in metaphysical manner. They see only the problems, difficult conditions and losses of the revolutionary movement in the present conditions. They thing that the present situation of balance of forces between the enemies and the people as permanent and unchangeable. They do not consider the opportunities to strengthen leaning valuable lessons from the objective revolutionary condition, the weaknesses of the enemy, the contradictions between the enemy classes and the practice of revolutionary forces. They lack confidence in the nature of the present imperialist-revolutionary era and the revolutionary nature of people. They do not understand or deny to understand the ongoing and future changes in the balance of forces with the enemy through conscious revolutionary efforts of the revolutionary forces and revolutionary party, through taking up tactics in a planned manner according to conditions and by overcoming the blows and setbacks. They do not confide in the people the genuine makers of history, on the utmost progressive, scientific theory of MLM (the present Marxism) and even on themselves. They thing the enemies of the broad masses and their strength invincible. Such persons bring forth defeatism. You clearly know that defeatist attitudes are seen not only in our country and party but in several countries and parties of the world.
We are totally confident in the success of People’s War in India. MLM is our guiding theory. It is the utmost progressive, revolutionary, dynamic and scientific theory among all the theories existing until date. It is the theory of the utmost advanced class, the proletariat. It is the utmost magnificent
theoretical weapon in the hands of the oppressed people of the society. People’s War shall definitely achieve success through organising the oppressed classes, sections and nationalities in the light of this theory, through leading them and continuing class struggle-people war. We absolutely believe that people are the makers of history and they shall attain the final victory. We are making class struggle-people’s war with total confidence on our theory, people and future. We thoroughly know our friends and foes. We see the enemy strategically as a paper tiger and tactically as a real tiger and are making PPW.
Marxism says that the contradiction between the forces of production and relations of production is the origin of social change. Indian socio-economic system is presently semi-colonial, semi-feudal. The comprador bureaucratic capitalist class and feudal class collaborated with the imperialists and are continuing as the exploitive ruling classes. The imperialist has indirect rule, exploitation and control on our country. The Indian state that represents the exploitive ruling classes is unleashing exploitation, oppression and repression on the workers, farmers, petty bourgeois, national bourgeois classes, special social sections such as Dalits, tribal people, religious minorities, women, LGBT, the oppressed nationalities of Kashmir and the North East and others. All the policies of these governments in political, economic, industrial, agricultural, service, defence cultural and environment sectors are anti-people and traitorous. Those are in the interests of a few comprador bureaucratic capitalists, landlords and imperialists. therefore the broad oppressed masses shall definitely fight and are fighting against these exploitive ruling classes. This is the basis, the source and also the guarantee of the success of People’s War.
Ours is a broad country where there is economic, social and cultural unequal development. We are relatively weak. Our enemy is strong. The revolutionary movement is at present in the stage of strategic self-defence. It is also going on with unequal development. It is yet to spread to all the areas and sectors. Enemy is trying his best to eliminate us before we strengthen. Our enemy is not only the old Indian state. The world capitalist imperialism in support to it too. We face the challenges that the Russian revolution faced at the time when there was no Socialist camp anywhere in the world. However, there are Maoist parties and forces fighting for the success of revolutions in several countries all over the world. We have their support. When we fight with a strong enemy we have ups and downs and advance and retreat. We take up the challenges, spread to all the areas and sectors of the country, enhance the mass base and shall fight courageously and with dare. We shall achieve success. People are invincible. They are the decisive factor. If we organise the oppressed people the majority people shall definitely bring down the few exploiters. We are absolutely confident in the historic truth that there is defeat-success-defeat and ultimately success. Capitalist imperialism is not permanent on this earth. In the process of development of human society, ultimately a society without exploitation and oppression, Communism shall be established.
The present international and domestic conditions are very favourable to advance the revolutionary movement. The three fundamental contradictions are sharpening day by day. The four fundamental contradiction in the country are also intensifying. These are creating favourable objective conditions for revolutions. In the recent times and especially since the Hindutva Fascist forces in the leadership of Modi came to power at the centre and in the majority states, they have been implementing LPG policies that fulfil the interests of imperialists and Indian comprador ruling classes very aggressively. The farmers of the country made a prolonged, historic, militant struggle for one year in Delhi against the anti-farmer, traitorous three agrarian acts that forced Modi to withdraw those Acts temporarily. These Acts were brought forth in the name of ‘Atmanirbhar’ as a part of the conspiracy to transform the country dependent on imperialists for food material. Apart from the Shaheenbagh struggle of Delhi against CAA, the ongoing people’s struggles against police camps, roads, displacement, construction of devastating mega projects and state fascist repression in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Bihar, Kerala, Punjab and Maharashtra, workers, teachers, employees, students, unemployed, oppressed social sections and others are making struggles all over the country. These reveal favourable conditions for revolution in the country.
The central and the state governments are trying to suppress the movements in fascist methods. Especially as a part of building Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist neo-colonial India in the name of New India the Modi government is making constant attacks on religious minorities, especially the Muslims, Dalits, tribal people and democrats. It is making many kinds of attacks on their religious customs and food habits and are trying to make draconian Acts to justify their acts. It lifted Article 370 and Section 35A and dissolved autonomy to Kashmir. It made an Act annulling triple talaq, building Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, suppressing the questioning voices, foisting conspiracy cases and putting in jails and unleashing the ‘SAMADHAN’ multipronged offensive to suppress the revolutionary movement in the utmost fascist methods are all part of it. But the vast oppressed people and democrats understand the conspiracies of the RSS and the BJP at the centre and are raising their voices and are organising against it.
Now, let us briefly see the condition of the ongoing People’s War in the leadership of our Party, the Party, PLGA and Revolutionary people’s organs.
After Naxalbari our movement setback in a short time. There was despair and disappointment. But we reviewed the movement, learnt lessons from the mistakes and weaknesses, overcame and gradually stepped forward. Since the end of 1970s, two revolutionary streams, the CPI (ML) and MCC started work in small areas of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and other states, gradually learnt and developed. In the process we faced left, right and various kinds of revisionism inside and outside the party. We strengthened and expanded into all sectors. We formed PLGA, organs of state power and various forums of United Front under the leadership of the Party. The process of unity of genuine revolutionaries took place during this time. The two main revolutionary streams of India, the CPI (ML)(People’s War) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) merged on 21st September 2004 and the CPI (Maoist) emerged. Thus we developed into a detachment of international proletariat and as a vanguard from a single centre that leads New Democratic Revolution in India. Subsequently we successfully held the Unity Congress Ninth Congress of the party in 2007 January. The Congress adopted the enriched basic documents and few policy papers. We formulated the central, main tasks and other important tasks. We consolidated the leadership through election.
After the Congress our practice continued in the direction of achieving other tasks including the central main task of seizure of state power through armed struggle. In 2005, various state governments unleashed Salwa Judum, Sendra and other such repressive campaigns with the support and in the guidance of the centre in a bid to suppress our movement. We defeated Salwa Judum and other campaigns by the end of 2008 through the heroic political and military struggles of the three forces of PLGA namely the main, secondary and base forces, Revolutionary people’s organs, revolutionary people, progressive and democratic intellectuals and social activists in the leadership of our party. Later the central and the state governments together started the countrywide strategic multipronged offensive Operation Green Hunt since 2009. We faced this offensive making enormous sacrifices until 2017. We did not allow the objective of Operation Green Hunt to be fulfilled. Then the enemy is unleashing another multipronged strategic ‘SAMADHAN’ offensive since 2017 May. PLGA, Revolutionary Mass Organisations and revolutionary people are making heroic guerrilla war against the Special Police, the Para-military, Commando forces possessing the support of power, economic wealth, modern weapons and heavy training and the Indian Army forces being secretly deployed in the veil of these forces. On the whole, to put it briefly, the revolutionary movement that went on in the leadership of our party in India from the end of 1970s to 2011 was in the stage of advancement. Thousands of martyrs shed their blood for this advancement. During this time the party stepped forward to a little extent in the direction of achieving the other tasks including the central task. It gained several utmost valuable and new experiences in political, military, United Front and Cultural sectors.
Our party had been making efforts to enlighten the people with the politics of New Democratic Revolution as the alternative to the fake parliamentary system and the state of the exploitive classes, organising them, taking up class struggles, developing its subjective strength and build People’s Army. By taking up People’s War-Guerilla War in a planned manner, it destroyed the state power of the comprador exploitive ruling classes and built, developed and expanded the guerrilla bases. These guerrilla bases contributed to further consolidate and expand the movement and to advance the People’s War. We built these guerrilla bases in Dandakaranya (DK), BiharJharkhand (BJ), Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB), Telangana, West Bengal and some parts of Odisha state. We established RPC as the organ of state power at the village, area and division levels depending on the balance of forces of the movement. These are holding the New Democratic state power. These people’s governments are exploring the abundant initiative hidden in the people and are making efforts to develop agricultural production through collective labour; to advance toward achieving economic development and self-sufficiency; to develop New Democratic culture; and to support the Party, PLGA, Revolutionary people’s organs, people’s struggles and People’s War.
However, certain severe shortcomings, weaknesses and limitations came up in the process of development of the Party, People’s Army and United Forums that are the three magnificent weapons that guarantee the success of revolution since 2012. Due to the shortcomings and limitations in adopting and implementing tactics according to the changes in the relations of production owing to imperialist globalisation policies and in the conditions of war, due to the lack of enough bolshevisation of the party, PLGA and people’s organs and due to the constant counter-revolutionary offensive on the party and the revolutionary movement, of the Indian comprador ruling classes in the dictates of the imperialists, there were big losses in this period. Various bureaus, sub-committees and departments were affected. Scores of central and state leaders were arrested since 2005 and the party faced a severe loss. 21 members of the CC were arrested after the Congress. Seven became martyrs in fake encounters, encounter and 13 CCMs out of ill health. The losses were mainly in the urban and plain areas. In this condition the party is not able to utilise the favourable atmosphere all over the country. We have to view the difficult conditions, problems and challenges of the party in this background. However, when compared with the time of Naxalbari, although there is improvement in the party and revolutionary movement in all the sectors, we could not protect the revolutionary leadership and the subjective forces in the severe enemy offensive and thus this situation arose. The 6th (contd.) meeting of the CC adopted tactics, direction of general practice and strategic plan. It made the necessary changes in the immediate, main and central tasks basing on the facts in the light of MLM. The party needs to make efforts with a firm determination accordingly.
In the recent times, we have been achieving certain successes in theoretical, political, organisational, military and cultural sectors. Let us look into them in brief.
The CC took up certain concrete and important tasks in theoretical and political sectors in its 6th and the 6th (contd.) meetings. It adopted a document ‘Changes in Relations of Production in India-Our Political Program’. It ‘answered’ the unreal, immature discussion that the relations of production in India turned to be capitalist and affirmed that the Indian social, economic system is yet semi-colonial, semi-feudal. However, it also said, that as a result of the policies of the imperialists, comprador bureaucratic capitalists and feudal classes there are considerable distorted capitalist changes and formulated the Political program and tactics.
It formulated and released a document ‘Nationality Question in IndiaOur Party’s stand’. It made the necessary changes and additions in the documents on Caste Question in India-our perspective and China-a new social-imperialist country and re-released those. It prepared and released the Central Political and Organisational Review from the Unity-Ninth Congress of the party held in 2007 until 2020. In the changed conditions and the present background of the movement it changed the central task thus — ‘Let us work with the objective to develop Dandakaranya and Bihar-Jharkhand, East Bihar-North East Jharkhand into base areas. Let us intensify anti-imperialist, anticomprador bureaucratic capitalist, anti-feudal class struggles in all the areas of the movement in the country’. It made the necessary changes in the immediate tasks in the political, organisational, military, United Front and urban sectors in accordance to the main central task.
The CC released a document on the understanding of the party on the formation of an International organisation in its meeting in 2017. It released circulars and letters on the political conditions and enemy offensive on various occasions. It could thus take the perspective and understanding on various aspects up to the cadres. It became easy to adopt the necessary tactics to take up people’s struggles on people’s problems in the light of these documents.
As a part of consolidation campaign of the party we held plenums of various Special Areas/Special Zones/States. We adopted Political and Organisational Reviews of the movements in the respective places. We assessed the conditions of the movement and adopted tasks. We elected new members into the leadership committees and consolidated them. We also successfully took up a campaign of party membership in some states and developed the primary membership of the party. We consolidated party cells and GPC.
We held four revolutionary days of international prominence in 2017- 18 such as the — Anniversaries of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Naxalbari Armed Peasant struggle, the Centenary of Russian October Revolution and the 200th Birth Anniversary of the great Marxist teacher Karl Marx, all with revolutionary enthusiasm. In certain areas, basing on the syllabus released by the CC for political education of the party cadres in 2019, subjects for study were selected in view of the concrete conditions in the respective areas and political training imparted at all level. Apart from study we also took up bolshevisation and field training in certain areas. In some other areas we took up struggle against non-proletarian trends in the party and PLGA.
In the military sector, depending on the mass base in the various guerrilla zones and red resistance areas, PLGA forces took up Tactical Counter Offensive Campaigns and retaliation programs in the leadership of the party and countered the ‘SAMADHAN’-Prahar offensive. In the Eastern region, resistance was taken up under the name ‘GHAMASAN’. The TCOC and retaliation campaigns were successful in a few places and partially successful in some others. In some places they failed.
In 2020, PLGA made 99 guerrilla actions on the whole. The ambush in Vimpa was a big one. PLGA eliminated four soldiers of the Indian Army secretly deployed in the cover of Police, Para-military and Commando forces apart from a few of these forces in this ambush. This is a new and higher experience. PLGA made 350 guerrilla actions all over the country from 2020 December to 2021 September. It wiped out 66 personnel and injured 85 of the police, Para-military and Commando forces. It seized 15 modern weapons, thousands of ammunition and other war equipment from the enemy forces. The ambush in Jeeragudem and Kadiyanar are the big actions and the rest were of small and medium kind. The PLGA forces retaliated the police, Paramilitary and Commando forces in more than 65 encounters in this period.
We need to make a special mention of the political and military importance of Jeeragudem ambush. PLGA divided the enemy forces that were in Battalion number (above 750 in number) and eliminated a platoon number (28) forces, eliminated them and injured another 31 in another platoon. The ambush gave a stiff resistance to the Prahar decisive attack that went on from 2020 October to 2021 June. It could temporarily stop the enemy plan. It instilled confidence among the revolutionary people, party and PLGA that we could defeat the ‘SAMADHAN’-Prahar offensive. If such Maoist style of struggle is implemented in all the guerrilla bases and red resistance areas, we can defeat ‘SAMADHAN’ offensive.
PLGA forces implemented defence tactics and escaped safely from the heavy drone attacks made by the police, Para-military, Commando and Army and Airforce on the camps of PLGA in the area of struggle in Dandakaranya in the midnight of 14th and 15th of April 2022. There was large-scale protest to the drone attacks in the country and the world.
In 2022, PLGA forces eliminated four Jharkhand Jaguar policemen in TCOC and retaliatory actions in Bihar-Jharkhand, East Bihar-North East Jharkhand Special Areas and injured some more in retaliation to the ‘SAMADHAN’-Prahar offensive of the enemy.
In Andhra-Odisha Border area PLGA injured four policemen amidst persistent combing and attacks by the enemy.
In the past one year PLGA forces eliminated 14 Para-military, Commando and Special police in guerrilla actions of the PLGA forces in various guerrilla areas. It injured 54 Para-military, Commando and Special police, seized 7 AK-47 Rifles and ammunition from them.
In some areas of struggle people’s militia took up guerrilla actions independently and seized weapons from the enemy.
PLGA forces made deliberate ambushes, opportunity ambushes, sniper actions, booby traps, remote actions, sabotage actions, seizure of enemy supplies, elimination of informers, elimination of counter revolutionaries, elimination of people’s enemies, attacked the police camps with shelling/grenades and other tactics in TCOC and retaliatory actions in order to defeat the counter-revolutionary ‘SAMADHAN’-Prahar offensive. The guerrilla war of PLGA played an important role in protecting the guerrilla bases and RPCs.
We imparted political and military training to the PLGA forces. We
celebrated the 20th Anniversary of PLGA year-long from 2nd December 2020 to 2nd December 2021.
By taking up people’s struggles and people’s wars with coordination we could [and were able to] temporarily stop mining, industrial projects, mega dams and tourist centers.
In some areas of struggle we recruited youth into PLGA in the recruitment campaign. We have been taking up these campaigns every year. Coming to United Front, as a part of consolidation of Mass Organisations and RPCs representative election meetings and Conferences of Revolutionary mass organisations were held at various levels. New leadership committees were elected. People celebrate revolutionary days and protest days every year in the leadership of the Party, PLGA and the Mass Organisations on 26th January, 15th August, the great Bhoomkal struggle day on 10th February, International Working women’s day on 8th March, Anti-Imperialist Day on 23rd March, May Day, martyrs’ week from 28th July to 3rd August, foundation day anniversary week from 21st September to 27th, Russian October Revolution Day on 7th November, PLGA foundation day from 2nd to 8th December and other such. On this 23rd March, the anti-imperialistday we held meetings and programs upholding the martyrdom of Comrades Bhagatsingh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, opposing the aggression of Russia on Ukraine and the war frenzy US, EU and NATO and greeting New People’s Army of Philippines on its 53rd Anniversary. We are opposing the Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist forces penetrating into the struggle areas through people’s struggles, retaliation and guerrilla actions. We are taking up propaganda and retaliatory programs against the attacks and massacres of Dalit and tribal people. several anti-Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist struggles are going on in various forms all over the country from the local to the central level.
Anti-imperialist, anti-comprador bureaucratic capitalist, anti-feudal class struggles are expanding and intensifying all over the areas of the movement. People are making militant fight against new police camps in Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma, Narayanpur and Kanker districts of Dandakaranya for the past years. Especially the struggle against the Silinger police camp in Bijapur district going on for the past 15 months is attracting the people, especially the indigenous people of the country and the world. In Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Area, people are occupying coffee plantations and subsequently cultivating them in the leadership of the village committees. In Telangana people are fighting against the ‘Haritaharam’ scheme of the government that displaces the tribal people from Telangana, against the anti-people policies that chase away the tribal people from the podu lands and against Government Order (GO) Number-3 that reduces the importance to tribal people in jobs in the tribal areas. PLGA forces mobilised the people widely and destroyed the properties of comprador bureaucratic capitalists and the government worth crores of rupees as a part of coming in the way of mining and infrastructure projects necessary for mining in Surjagarh and Amdai and other hills.
Thousands of people held militant movements carrying their traditional weapons such as axes, knifes, sickles and bow and arrows against the proposed police camps in Tesaphooli, Parvatpur, Dholkatta, Banpura, Pandedih in the Tarayi area of Parasnath mountain range in Jharkhand. They destroyed the police vehicles. They burnt them. Tribal peasant struggles are going on in Dandakaranya, Jharkhand, AOB and Odisha against the camps of police, Para-military and Commando forces, against roads and culverts, police atrocities, fake encounter, massacres, atrocities on women and displacement. Lakhs of people are participating in these struggles. We called for a campaign to preserve peoples’ health against Corona pandemic and combined it with anti-imperialist, anti-comprador bureaucratic capitalist, anti-feudal class struggle. Our doctor teams served the people with treatment. We took up people’s struggles with demands such as free vaccination, treatment, free rations to those who lost livelihood and to provide job facilities.
On the occasion we convey revolutionary greetings and revolutionary thanks to the ICSPWI and various revolutionary parties who have been taking up solidarity movements in support to the People’s War in India at the international plane for the past one and a half decades. You are aware that the International Action Day against the counter-revolutionary, strategic ‘SAMADHAN’ offensive and Prahar offensive as per the call of ICSPWI. The propaganda and agitation activities that took place in a wide level regarding 10th February, 23rd March and 13th September were because of the initiative in the International Communist Movement.
One of the successes the Party achieved was to enlighten women, half of the sky, developing their efficiencies in political, organisational, military, cultural and other sectors. Presently there are nearly 50 percent women in PLGA in almost all the areas.
The Party paid much attention to develop the revolutionary, democratic cultural sector. This sector helped to develop revolutionary, democratic values among the oppressed classes, oppressed social sections and oppressed nationalities.
One more important issue is the struggles of political prisoners in jails and the development of struggles of ordinary prisoners with their support.
On the whole, we see that efforts are going on to expand-intensify class struggle-guerrilla war (People’s War) all over the country. efforts are going on to organise the Party, PLGA and United Front. We are gaining new experiences politically, organisationally, militarily and technically. The combination of positive experiences in this effort shall undoubtedly help to defeat the counter-revolutionary ‘SAMADHAN’-Prahar offensive and to advance the Indian Revolutionary movement.
However, we have the unfavourable factors and challenges created by the enemy. Protecting successes is one important factor. We are aware that there shall be more difficulties, tests and losses in future. However, we will learn from mistakes, develop our subjective strength and efficiency, win most of the people, friendly forces and organisations on to our side, adopt tactics to educate the party and the people, develop the understanding and culture not to be depressed with losses and feel great of successes, utilise these experiences on the basis of successes and victories achieved until now, utilise the present revolutionary conditions and shall definitely advance from the present state of the movement. Therefore optimistic perspective and confidence are necessary towards the success of Indian People’s War.
Q — One group of people who have been persecuted by the old Indian state are the queer community, such as lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders. What is the stance of the CPI (Maoist) on the movement for LGBT rights in India, and on the persecution of LGBT people by the Indian fascist state?
A — Our Party understands and analyses the LGBT issue also with Marxist (MLM) understanding. True liberation of the LGBT community from gender oppression and discrimination is obtained only through eradicating class oppression and constant theoretical, political, social, economic, cultural and medical efforts to bring about a change in the perspective of the people, only then they can have a condition to live equal to others and gain respect.
Our Party recognises the special problems and rights of the LGBT just as it does of the human, civil rights and all the rights of the oppressed classes, special social sections and all the oppressed nationalities, like it supports their struggles for rights and like it supports the struggles of those being exploited and oppressed by the old (reactionary) Indian state. They are born with certain physical characteristics and physically and mentally special (genetic) characteristics. But they ae part of the humankind. We oppose the oppression and discrimination of the Indian state that represents the capitalists and landlords and acts as comprador to the imperialists. it respects their right to life as Indian citizens, their primary rights equal to all the citizens and the right to have all rights including particular/special rights concerning concrete problem.
The party provides them partnership in education, medicine, residence, employment, administration and political sectors in the future Indian New Democratic state. It will provide economic and social security, anda healthy social and cultural atmosphere. It guarantees free medicine and introduces pro-people medical system that can provide good health. Thus they can live with the recognition they need or wish, confirm their gender and have the opportunity to have physical and mental treatments, free medicine and a healthy, respectful, scientific life. It also trains the society so that they have an equal and respectful attitude towards them.
It supports the movements going on for their rights in the presentstage. It opposes the sexual violence, exploitation, oppression, discrimination and sexual opportunism towards the LGBT community. The LGBT community must not lose any opportunities. They must be provided all the opportunities so as they can utilise all their strength and efficiencies for the society.
In the present stage, the movement going on for the rights of LGBT in India segregated from the social reality of class struggle and is under the influence of individual centered, bourgeois, post-modernist ideology. The movement must overcome it. This movement must become part of all the movements that are working to destroy the Indian state that represents the semi-colonial, semi-feudal socio-economic system and is unleashing fascist repression and cruel exploitation on all the oppressed classes of the country, apart from the LGBT community. The LGBT community also must unite with all the oppressed classes against the three enemy classes namely imperialists, Indian comprador bureaucratic capitalist and feudal classes that are unleashing exploitation, oppression, suppression and discrimination.
Imperialism, ruling classes and their Indian state are indiscriminately utilising the LGBT community to make the society inactive. They are encouraging the porn industry as a part of cashing on the discrimination towards the LGBT community, their poverty and unemployment. It is encouraging sexual anarchy among the people, especially the youth. Our party opposes it severely. The Indian New Democratic state will ban the porn industry.
In one aspect regarding LGBT — the Party opposes and discourages the attitude if a person living a normal life with the recognition of a woman or a man or anything else (third gender) and on the other continues an unnatural relation and enters into physical relations with many persons in an anarchic manner.
When the concerned individuals lack scientific understanding towards the genetic related extremities by nature and the causative physical particularities related to gender, the attitude towards such issues and individuals will become unnatural doubtful, disrespectful and shameful. In such conditions the concerned persons face discrimination not only from the society but also from the families and relatives. Then they will be pushed to the situation of living as a separate community. Socialist state provides scientific understanding to all the people of the society. It develops an ordinary understanding so as to accept it as a natural thing.
One section is being attracted towards unnatural physical relations under the influence of distorted culture, sexual anarchy, porn literature and cinema and other such things that imperialism is supporting. The Socialist state works to establish healthy, mutual respectful human relations in the society through destroying capitalist imperialism, outdated rotten culture and through spreading democratic, socialist culture.
Q — Lastly, I would like to ask you about the situation of revolutionary political prisoners in India. Can you tell our readers more about this situation?
A — The methods and ways that the state adopts to suppress the people’s movements, the ongoing revolutionary movement, antidisplacement movements, workers’ and farmers’ movement, those of the students and youth, government employees, oppressed social sections, fisherfolk, unemployed, tribal and religious minority peoples, struggles for human rights, women, handicapped, pensioners and prisoners are multipronged. Two of them are important. One is to eliminate the people’s leadership and activists fighting in brutal and fascist methods utilising armed forces. The second is to illegally arrest and imprison them. Armed forces,
courts, jails and the Constitution that provides the base for these are the important and vital ones in stabilising and protecting the authority of outdated exploitive ruling classes, unleashing persistent exploitation, oppression and anti-people policies. It is an ordinary feature of class societyin class society to eliminate those who counter the state through armed forces, arrest and imprison them, punish them through courts, isolate them from people’s life and destroy their strength and efficiency.
The condition of revolutionary political prisoners in India is becoming miserable day by day. The Indian state had been very inhuman and brutal since a long time, especially since the beginning of the rule of Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist BJP towards all the democratic movements, struggling organisations and also towards the revolutionary political prisoners. Apart from them it is antagonistic towards the religious minorities, activists of Dalit movements, human rights activists, revolutionary, progressive, democratic, secular student-youth, teachers, patriots, intellectuals, poets, artists, writers, lawyers, journalists, scientists, various social activists, activists of worker and farmer’s organisations, activists of anti-displacement movements and the activists of movements of nationalities such as Kashmir, Naga, Manipur, Asom and Bodo. State follows several illegal methods to suppress anyone who question the anti-people, anti-country, traitorous policies of the governments that represent the reactionary exploitive ruling classes and when not possible to do so, put them behind the bars. It is grossly violating, fascising and saffronizing its own Constitution.it is foisting cases, conspiracy cases indiscriminately and is making arrests. Maoist prisoners in West Bengal and Kerala prisons fought for the right to be recognised as political prisoners and achieved it. But, the Indian comprador ruling class did not recognise the political prisoners languishing in jail all over the country. It is because of its repressive policies.
It is nothing new for the old Indian state to imprison the questioning voices and those who oppose behind bars. It inherited this legacy from the British. Indian state is not only discriminate socially, economically and politically but also constitutionally also towards caste, class and gender. This is continuing in the central and all the state governments. It is implemented towards the political prisoners also.
The world is aware that the Modi government in the centre stuffed the leaders and activists of political parties of the main stream and the local parties in Kashmir in jail and then annulled the special autonomy to Kashmir. Modi had been unleashing fascism and emergency for the past 9 years more than that during the rule of Indira Gandhi. Thousands of Muslims and Dalit people are behind the bars.
It had become a normal feature to make constant check-ups utilising cruel intelligence agencies such as the NIA with fascist UAPA in its hands; placing illegal equipment in the houses and creating fake documents that they seized them; inducing convenient software such as Pegasus into computers from outside to foist conspiracy cases; and amending UAPA with further cruel regulations. You are aware that a team of IT experts of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) revealed this in the foisted case of Bhima-Koregaon.
This is the state that pushed 85 year old Father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist in the Bhima-Koregaon case by denying him a straw in a condition where he cannot drink water and disallowing the minimum medical facilities. Except for revolutionary poet Varvara Rao who is severely ill and in old age and social activist Sudha Bharadwaj given conditional bail or almost house arrest kind of stringent conditions, the rest are languishing in the prison for more than four years. 90 percent disabled Comrade Saibaba who was a lecturer in English in the Ramlal Anand College of Delhi University is denied minimum facilities such as a wheelchair.
61 year old Comrade Narmada, member of the Secretariat of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of our Party and leader of Dandakaranya women’s movement was arrested in 2019 when she was undergoing treatment for higher stages of cancer. She was put in Bombay prison and denied treatment. Finally she had to wait for her death in a hospice. Her partner Comrade Kiran was also in prison in the city but was not allowed to meet her in her last minutes. Although the court permitted, the jail authorities deliberately let him see only after her death.
Senior members of the CC Comrade Barun, Comrade Tapas, Comrade Vijay, Comrade Chintan became martyrs within a short time of their release since they were denied of proper conveniences during their prolonged imprisonment. Comrades Sumit (Amitab Bagchi) and Asutosh, members of CC are in the jail for the past more than a decade. Polit Bureau member, 76 year old Comrade Kishanda of Naxalbari generation is suffering from 5 kinds of chronic diseases. He is being denied proper treatment and they want to murder him inside the jail. Comrade Sheela arrested along with him as she was going for treatment for four kinds of chronic diseases was also foisted with wrong cases and imprisoned. Comrade Vijay (BG Krishnamurty), the Secretary of Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee, senior citizen, CCM Comrade Kanchan (Arun Kumar Bhattacharya), CCM Comrade Jaspal (Vijay Kumar Arya) are facing imprisonments and tortures. 71 year old Comrade Kanchanda is suffering from several chronic diseases but denied of treatment. All the comrades are holding aloft the Red Flag in prisons.
Thousands of party leaders, cadres and comrades of local organisations of various levels are in jail under trial for a long time. Fake evidences were created on them are they are imposed prolonged punishments, life and hanging. 10 comrades were imposed hanging and three with life imprisonment by the Jehanabad district court in Sinari case in Bihar. Mercy petition in hanging for four comrades in the Bara case is pending in the President’s office for the past 2 years. Finally the President issued orders that they have to stay in jail as long as they live. Munger district court imposed death sentence to five tribal farmer activists. In Jharkhand, a member of the East Bihar-North East Jharkhand Special Area Committee Comrade Praveer was imposed death sentence by the Dumka district court. All this is the continuation of the illegal and conspiratorial hanging of revolutionary peasant guerrilla activists Bhoomayya and Kishtagoud during the criminal period of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. This is the continuation of hanging warriors like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev by the British colonialists a few decades after this.
The police are indiscriminately arresting children, old people, women, pregnants and patients of our areas of struggle and show to have surrendered. Those who do not surrender are being murdered in fake encounters. Many are foisted with false cases and imprisoned. They are in jail for years together without trial and are living in a pathetic condition. They are deprived of any kind of medical help in jails. The conditions are inhuman. The inhuman conditions create trauma. All these are leading to the death of a few. Such incidents are not being informed to their families. The courts are forced to release many persons because they could not obtain fake evidences after investigation of years together. The families of those languishing in jail for a long time are suffering from economic problems. Family members are mentally depressed and some are suffering from mental ill health. Children’s lives are disturbed. Some families are scattered.
This is a fresh example. Police and Para-military forces went on combing to Burkapal village of South Bastar division of Dandakaranya when PLGA ambushed them. 25 CRPF personnel lost their lives and 31 were injured. PLGA seized 24 automatic weapons from them. Later police and Para-military forces made attacks on the villages surrounding Burkapal and arrested 122 tribal farmers. They were foisted with false cases and sent to jail. One of them fell severely ill and breathed his last in prison. After 5 years and 3 months 121 people including a woman were recently found not guilty and released by the local court. The extent of foisting wrong cases indiscriminately is clear from the fact that even wrong evidences were not available. TV channels showed the pathetic condition of the 122 families. The Central and the state governments arrested hundreds of farmers during the year long historic peasant struggle. Although the governments agreed to release them with the agreement with Samyukta Kisan Morcha, many of them are still in jail.
The condition of Indian jails is very pathetic. Prisoners and under trial prisoners are suffering from many difficulties. The jail manual is very old. This is a duplicate of the jail manual prepared by the British in 1894. The Hindutva fascist Modi government is involved in transforming it much bureaucratically in legal forms. Meanwhile the prisoners and under trail prisoners are not provided the facilities even as per the jail manual. The jails are stuffed with prisoners more in numbers than during the British period. For example, while the capacity of Chhattisgarh jails is 6070, there are more than 16,000. They are given low quality of rice, oil, pulses and vegetables and that too not as per the quota. The eatables are normally rotten. Soaps, pastes, clothes and under clothes are inadequate. Many prisoners do not have a chance to obtain them from their families. The lives of poor prisoners are much more miserable. They are made to work hard with nominal daily wages. The women prisoners are in a much more miserable condition. There is patriarchal suppression. CC TV cameras have become a normal feature in all the jails in the name of protection. Women prisoners lack privacy. Since the rule of BJP and Sangh Parivar, non-vegetarian food, eggs and other nutritious food is not being given. Jail authorities indulge in limitless corruption and atrocities. Coupon system is going on in the jails in Bihar, Jharkhand and others. In tribal areas, prisoners are given soup without tea of breakfast. Body trade is also going on in jail with the help of the officers. The rich, political leaders and mafias obtain all kinds of facilities and luxury in jails.
Trials are prolonged for years and at times even for decades without taking them to courts in the name of lack of escort. The police machinery arrests people, activists of the movement, leaders and activists of people’s movement and leaders and activists of our party and foist scores of fake cases. The trial is prolonged. Although there are few cases on a few persons, those who are released not guilty are re-arrested near the jail gate, foisted with some more new cases and imprisoned. Comrade Madkam Gopanna, a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee had been in jail for the past 15 years. He was arrested two times near the jail gate and sent to jail once again. Bails are normally not granted in the courts of many states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bung and Asom. They need to complete the trial and be released not guilty. There is no other way. When there are many cases under many sections, all the punishments are not carried at a time (in concurrency). The punishments are taken up one by one. This situation is beyond that of the British colonialists. A strong movement is needed so as to achieve the right to register all the cases on the accused within four months of arrest and to implement concurrence.
At present the judiciary is being fascised day by day under the rule of Brahmanic Hindutva BJP government. Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Modi and Amit Shah passing judgment on the Zakia Jafri petition related to the massacre of Muslims by Hindutva forces in Gujarat. Social activists Teesta Seetalvad was arrested the same day. Gandhian social activist Himanshu Kumar petitioned for justice to the family members of 16 tribal people massacred in Gompad-Singaram by the armed police forces in 2009 in Dandakaranya. He was found fault for wasting the time of the court and was imposed Rs.5 lakhs or rigorous punishment for two years. The whole world was shocked and raised voice against this attitude. The supreme court indirectly told not to approach the courts and that if approached they will be sued.
Deputy jailor of Central Jail in Raipur (the capital of Chhattisgarh) Varsha Dongre was suspended from duty for a facebook post exposing the inhuman behaviour of the police toward tribal prisoners. Sukma district additional magistrate Prabhakar Gwal was suspended in 2016 and later removed from job when he did not agree to send hundreds of tribal people to jail. He said that it is not possible unless identity papers such as Aadhar card are presented.
One important thing needs to be brought to your notice in this regard. Jail comrades have been constantly making struggles against the inhuman conditions and for their just demands. They are obtaining better results to an extent temporarily. Leaders and activists of our party are organising the ordinary prisoners in the prison and taking up struggles for their rights. They are observing revolutionary days and protest days in the prison. They are moulding prisons into centers of class struggle, study and education. They are facing intense repression, tortures, atrocities firmly and with dare and continuing their political efforts.
Women political prisoners are in the forefront in the struggles of the jail comrades. We bring a small example to your notice. The struggle of women prisoners in the leadership of women activists of our party in Jagadalpur Central jail in Chhattisgarh in 2013 gained magnificent victory. The struggle achieved rights such as taking the undertrials to each and every adjournment to the court, providing immediate medical treatment to the ill, joining them in hospital, issuing separate independent kitchen to women prisoners and giving daily wage to women prisoners on kitchen duty.
On the other hand, it is organising different democratic forces in support of the struggles of jail comrades, so that they take up solidarity struggles outside the jail and arranging legal aid (judicial help) for their release. They are working to the best of their strength for this purpose. Anyway, we need to organise advocates, democrats and rights activists in the necessary extent to work in this direction.
Party is mobilising revolutionary people in support to the struggles of the jail comrades on 13th September on the occasion of martyrdom of Comrade Jatin Das, the revolutionary hero who made indefinite hunger strike for 64 days for the rights of prisoners against British imperialism. Intellectuals and democrats are observing the day. They are organising interviews in large numbers, to meet families of jail comrades, extending support to the possible extent and holding rallies, meetings and seminars. They are making efforts to provide legal aid through advocates. They are forming committees for the release of political prisoners, organisations and legal aid committees and to extend them.
On the other hand jail comrades are making attempts to the best of their strength to break from jail. The Jehanabad jail break, Dantewada jail break, guerrilla action on Lakhisarai court, Chaibasa jail break-1, 2, the escape of 6 revolutionary children from the Rourkela juvenile home, guerrilla action on the escort vehicle of Giridih prisoners, the escape of 9 members of revolutionary children’s organisation from Dantewada juvenile home are few examples. Jehanabad jail break and attack on Giridih escort vehicle stand as examples to incidents that took place with the support of the party from outside. Another example is to get a PBM released from the escort police when he was brought to the Lakhisarai court. However, the various kinds of attempts going on for the release of the comrades and their rights are going on to a little extent due to the intense enemy offensive, the limitations and weaknesses of urban movement and democratic movements. Our party, the movement and the people have the heroic revolutionary tradition of escaping from jail. There were jail breaks during Naxalbari in the process of which comrades were martyred. When the secretary of AP SC Kondapalli was brought to hospital when in Visakha jail, he and another SCM were released from the police. Four comrades including the AP SC secretary Shyam broke from Adilabad jail in 1987 along with three Rifles. However, in the present condition of severe repression and bureaucratic rule in the country and jails, we need to intensify attempts from the inside and also outside.
This year due to the initiative and special effort of ICSPWI, action week is going to be observed for the release of Indian political prisoners from 13th to 19th September 2022, in support of them and to stop the heavy drone attacks made jointly by the BJP government in the leadership of Modi and the Bhupesh Baghel led Congress government in Chhattisgarh on our areas of movement. The CC of our party appreciated the call of the ICSPWI and appealed to make it a success.
There is a strong need to build, strengthen worldwide militant, organised solidarity movement for the political prisoners with the demands Political prisoners of all the countries such as Philippines, Turkey, Peru, Galicia, Afghanistan and all the countries of revolutionary movement including India must be unconditionally released; all those arrested as a part of social, political struggles and are in jail must be provided the status of political prisoners; there must be a stop to the violating of rights of prisoners, especially political prisoners and women prisoners and the atrocities and suppression on them; jail manuals must be reformed; conditions in jail must be improved according to them. Our Party hopes that the efforts of ICSPWI goes in this direction. It declares that it would make the efforts in India in this regard and firmly believes that the movement shall gradually develop.
