What Threatens the State:Arms or Ideology?

Source: Spring Thunder

On June 25, Three Comrades of CPI (Maoist) namely Palanivel, Velmurugan and Muthamizh Selvan got arrested in Murugan Malai hills of Periyakulam, Tamilnadu. Police claimed to have seized rifles and grenades from them. It also said that some other comrades had fled the scene and published their photographs in media. On July 8, Police arrested Sundaramoorthy, Easwaran and Karthik in Tirupur and jailed them after interrogation.

The Q branch intelligence police conducted house raids in and around Madurai, a southern city of Tamilnadu in search of the escaped. The Super Cop Vijayakumar who 'valiantly' shot the corpse of Bandit Veerapan and 'captured' him leads the combing operation of the Special Task Force in Western Ghats.

"70-membered Armed Squads of 70 in numbers in Tamilnadu!"

"AK-47 Rifles in Periyakulam! Laptops and Grenades Seized! Arms dump uncovered!"

"600 Students to Join the Armed Squads!"

Some of the hysterical cries of press cited above even exceed the screenplay of jingoistic, irrational Vijayakant movies. The euphoria on Police atrocities in the name of 'Naxal probe' and blowing up Vijayakumar cum intelligence policemen as fearless warriors shows the bootlicking character of the press. By showing the arrested comrades in poor light and with its countless fabrications, news media shows its true nature in full light.

A planned measure to show Maoists as a biggest threat surrounding Tamilnadu is under way. But Police officers like Vijayakumar and Nanjil Kumaran say that Maoists have not grown much in Tamilnadu to fear about. In an interview, Ashok Kumar, Superintendent of Police, 'Q' Branch says, "According to our estimation, the number of Maoists in Tamilnadu may come around 25 to 35". Also, police accepts that the seized weapons are quite ordinary and not dreadful ones.

Why such a hue and cry then? Why do photographs of Vijayakumar posing in combing operations in Periyakulam, Kodaikanal, Dharmapuri and Courtallam pour out in media? What's the purpose behind setting up a permanent STF camp in Periyakulam?

It's not a usual narcissistic propaganda stunt of police. It's the state terrorism to terrorize the people. The very purpose is to instill the brute face of STF in the minds of people so that it'll be recalled, whenever they hear the word 'Naxabari' again and they will be dreaded in fear to take part in it. Secondly, it's the extravagant posture of Karunanidhi to counter Jayalalitha. For a long time, it's been the permanent propaganda of all the Brahminic media, From 'The Hindu' to Cho.Ramaswamy and Jayalalitha that the Law and order will worsen if Karunanidhi comes to power. So this time Karunanidhi is all set to prove his mettle. Hence he chose Vijayakumar, a blessed boy of Jayalalitha to lead the 'Naxal-Hunt'. Morever, DMK Govt must have felt a dosage of the blown-out 'Naxal-Hunt' as a necessity to market the state as a peaceful destination to the MNC's.

As expected, Police always makes use of every single opportunity to strengthen its unquestionable authority and to conceal all its criminal acts. Hence, 'outdoor-shootings' are enacted in hills and jungles to create an image as if the police is engaged in a dangerous mission. Police tries to cover up all the past, present and future fake encounters using this opportunity as a screen.

After all, what exactly happened in Periyakulam that it is portrayed so dreadfully? Simply three men got arrested with some weapons. There was no bomb blast or a gun fight or any lethal mishap. Not even a scratch for the policemen. Even according to the Law and order view of police, it's just an ordinary crime.

Compare this incident with the recent gory assault on 'Dinakaran' Newspaper by DMK hoodlums in broad day light with police as mere onlookers. Karunanidhi justified the assault by saying that it was incited by the poll published by 'Dinakaran' though the brutal violence was caught clearly in camera that led to the death of three employees of 'Dinakaran'.

If some magazine made a 'grave crime' by estimating a 2% mass support for Azhagiri, the elder son of Karunanidhi, then we are supposed to acknowledge the fury of Azhagiri's henchmen and their 'just' protest of setting ablaze the newspaper office with its staff held inside. But if some take up arms against an establishment that pushed crores of peasants to suicide, countless people to hunger and butchered muslims and dalits, then it's terrorism!

If three youths made a 'grave crime' by possessing some guns, then police searches for the Maoists every nook and corner of the state. Then what were the combing operations after the DMK councilor got bombarded with remote controlled device in broad day light in Sivagangai district recently? Why there is no cry about the violent incidents that led to the cancellation of local body elections and cooperative society elections? Was any STF ever got deployed to probe these criminal gangs? Whether such ferocity was ever shown for hunting corruption or communalism or caste atrocities other than Naxals? Was any Special Task Force ever formed to curb these crimes that take place straight in front of our eyes than to comb for Naxals in forests?

Violence or non-violence is not the issue. The ruling classes have no objection to get assimilated in the system, to act as agents of MNC's and even for an armed clash for shares in the looting the state wealth. The technology involved in the remote device that triggered the bomb in Sivagangai district is far advanced than that of the one implanted for Chandra babu Naidu by People's War Group. Even after that there was no witch hunt. It's not only because the perpetrators belonged to the ruling party but principally because that this violence is not aimed against the ruling classes. That's why all the pillars of democracy pounce on Naxalites, when they proclaim to take up arms against the unjust political establishment.

Particularly Ruling classes fear the masses of this country that fight against the Liberalisation – Privatisation – Globalisation (LPG) policies may get organised under the leadership of communist revolutionaries in future. It's not the jungles or rifles that terrify the establishment but it's the Marxist-Leninist-Mao thought. The unrelenting fight and the indomitable soul of the Communist revolutionaries is the one that drives the establishment to panic. They end up in an endless jugglery of words concealing their fear, starting with citing the reason of Naxalism as Unemployment and disenchantment of youth. They dream to eradicate Naxalism by eradicating the above said social evils. They present Naxal Politics as a Criminal act just like robbery or prostitution by saying it evolves due to poverty and unemployment.

If one has to buy that argument, all those disenchanted one lakh farmers should have become Naxals and would not have killed themselves. It's not despair that drives the Naxalites but it's the rage against the social injustice. The scientific outlook of Marxism-Leninism leads their way. Naxalites bear the society on their shoulders. Naxalites are the men and women who come forward by their own will to sacrifice their personal pleasures of life for the sake of masses. Naxalites neither are disillusioned youth nor is Communism an ideology that withers away when plates are full.

No one can defeat the Naxal Politics as wrong by argument. Any high profile leader of any ballot box party will never be able to answer a single question of a simple cadre of Naxalbari movement. The ruling classes fear to counter the Naxalites politically and hence they threaten, terrify and try to isolate them from the masses.

We can smash the false propaganda carried out by the state and media on the Periyakulam incident. But it doesn't mean that this false propaganda didn't sell out or that people understood the justification of the armed struggle of Maoists. The report published by the State Committee of Tamilnadu, CPI (Maoist) on Periyakulam incident is by itself an example.

The report says, "Media tries to project Maoists as arms obsessed terrorists hiding the ambitions and ideology.", and "Karunanidhi Govt is propagating panic by portraying simple preparations for armed struggle as bigger terrorism." It further explains briefly on who Maoists are and why they take up arms.

When an organization is in a stage to explain to people to make them understand on whom the Naxalites are, what they fight for and why do they take up arms, it is just childish to claim that they had started the armed struggle. In the last seven years, it is for the third time that they were caught encircled in Tamilnadu.

In January 2000 as a consequence of Bus torching, Comrade Ravindran was tortured by the police and was killed in the custody. Police fabricated it as an encounter. It was DMK tenure at that time. In November 2003, 26 comrades were arrested in oothangarai of Dharmapuri district, charged under POTA and Comrade Siva was shot dead by the police. It was AIADMK tenure at that time. Now Periyakulam has come to the fore.

When Ravindran was murdered and when 26 comrades were detained in oothangarai, we criticized their adventurism of forming armed squads even without mass support. Maoists got infuriated on us. They argued that they have organized people in large numbers in Dharmapuri and said the district was an emerging front of armed struggle.

Now with Periyakulam, the Report of Maoist party doesn't say anything on what exactly happened there. There is no mass political support in the area for the party and there are no reports as to any of the local people got detained for supporting the Maoists.

It seems not the politics but only geography leads the Maoists. They seem to think that dense jungles and hilly ranges are enough reasons to form the armed squads and to start an armed struggle. Not only that, they consider these absurd actions devoid of political outlook as their personal issues. They think in a classical adventurist way like, "We fight and we sacrifice. What's your problem?"

The simple truth that Communists are answerable to people for each and every of their act seems to hit them only when the enemies start the false propaganda. Hence, they explain in their report on why they take up arms. They cite a long list from SEZ's to Gujarat and say, "It is not terrorism when people take up arms against these kinds of terrorisms. Maoists take up arms only to spearhead such a mass revolution."

So the mass revolution is already on and they spearhead them! Wonder, we have never heard Communists who lead a revolution of the masses offering such a 'self-explanation' to the masses who are already engaged in the revolution.

Be it SEZ's or other Privatisation onslaughts, people are taking up spontaneous struggles all over the country. But all these struggles, however militant they may be, are only economic struggles that are waged by several sections of the society to fulfill their individual demands within the limits of the system. There is neither the political outlook of Anti-Recolonisation nor an aim of overthrowing the state apparatus in these struggles. The duty of the communists is to organize the people under such political slogans and that's what 'organising people' means. Maoists don't have such an understanding nor do they believe in organising people this way.

But Maoists follow a detrimental methodology to politicize people. They intend to convert the struggles of people waged for their individual demands as a clash with police. The police repression on the people will eventually follow and Maoists believe that thereby people will understand the state as a brutal apparatus by experience. They get some of their frontrunners for armed squads through these actions amongst such troubled people. This is the tactics formed by Maoists to organize people for a revolution.

They project their mass support attained in Andhra and Dandakaranya due to some special circumstances, as mass armed struggle and they argue for applying it all over the country. But the mass support they gained there is not a political support; it's based on the moral feeling of tribal people that 'Naxalites give their life for the sake of tribal people and their causes'. This kind of support doesn't encourage political consciousness among the people but on the contrary wipes it out and leaves them as spectators.

In Andhra, media reports say that there was no response or incidents in the recent Bandh announced by Maoists against SEZ's. Only military acts of smashing the electrical and telecommunication towers have taken place in Chattisgarh. A political activity of Bandh which is supposed to express the political consciousness of the people in an organized form, which is supposed to raise the class consciousness of the people to a higher level has lost the meaning, getting diminished just as a 'nuisance act' to the state.

Comrade Sonu, CC member of CPI (Maoist) acknowledges the fact that they have suffered a setback in Andhra. ('People's March', March-July 2007). But they analyze the setback only in military aspects and not on political lines.

They don't even take in to consideration of some questions like, "Whether People fight to protect the 'people's authority' which Maoists claim to have established?", "Why the lakhs of people organized during the talks with Rajashekhara Reddy, did not organise against the fake encounters that followed it?", "how was it possible for George Bush to visit Andhra without any stiff resistance from people where Maoists claim to have strong support?", and "how come it became possible for the rulers of Andhra to carry on with their pursuit of implementing neo-liberal policies ahead of other states and in such a situation why there are no significant mass movements like Nandigram?".

Maoists find peace at simple formulas for these questions by saying that due to the repression, people are unable to organize and they are ready otherwise. But the countless political uprisings throughout the history or the ones that took place in front our eyes in Kashmir, Manipur or in recently in Nandigram, (may be of whatever leadership) but these mass struggles erupting out challenging the brutal repressions doesn't seem to open the eyes of Maoists. It's because of their pure military outlook which doesn't cares about the people's initiative and they care about the mass support only from the perspective of supporting their armed actions.

Leave the false propaganda of media projecting Maoists as arms obsessed. What is the true state of affairs? If not, then what's the meaning of Maoists having an idea to find the engagement in armed struggle as the deciding criterion to assess the revolutionary character of any organization? Or what to infer from the childish armed struggle preparation of Periyakulam? It only conveys their idea of 'Rifle as the physical form of revolutionary politics.'

Maoists sarcastically reject our argument, when we put forward that the armed struggle is a matured form of political struggle and we should make people understand the necessity of armed struggle through their own experience of political struggles. They limit the politics in to heroic dialogues like, "People are all ready for armed struggle. For how long can we chat and waste their time? We need to start immediately."

The duty of communists is to engage people in revolution and to lead them and not to enact revolution on behalf of them. Revolution is not a personal scuffle between revolutionaries and ruling classes. But the self-styled left adventurism thinks of bestowing liberation to the people.

The treachery of right opportunists and pseudo communists easily gets exposed. But many fail to understand that the left adventurism also causes extensive damage to revolution. Utmost it is understood in turns of personal loss of those comrades who face the cruel prisons and brutal tortures.

The report of State Committee of Tamilnadu, CPI (Maoist) says, "Karunanidhi tries to threaten not only Maoist revolutionaries but all who fight against the establishment by sending STF, a terrorist force." Certainly, there is no doubt that the state apparatus and STF are common enemies of all masses. But the Maoist deed provided the opportunity to the enemies to showcase themselves as heroes, to justify all their terror acts and to isolate the revolutionaries from the masses. The question is whether at this moment the Maoists understand it as a loss to revolution.

Editors Team - Puthiya Jananayagam