Widespread violence by the Maoists in the recent period and their
characterization as the “biggest internal security threat” by the Union Government has brought the issue of “Leftwing” extremism to the fore.

According to the Union Home Ministry, 3338 persons have died in 7806 incidents involving naxalite violence from 2004 to 2008. 580 persons have died in 1405 incidents spread across 11 states, till August, 2009. The Union Government has launched a security offensive against the Maoists along with the concerned state governments in the Maoist infested areas. While extremist violence needs to be dealt with firm administrative steps, a security centric approach towards the Maoist violence would fail to end the problem. The Maoists need to be ideologically confronted and politically exposed and isolated. The socio-economic backwardness, especially in the Maoist infested areas also need to be addressed.


Lalgarh and the West Bengal Experience
Though Naxalbari in West Bengal has been the cradle of the ultra Left
movement in the country, West Bengal also witnessed the fading away of the
ultra Left for a long time since the seventies. There were several reasons. The
ideological confusion and bankruptcy that it based itself on resulted in the
splintering of the movement. The nebulous framework and the anti working
class ideas that premised the naxalite movement was also bound to affect its
organization. The movement was infiltrated by alien elements of the ruling
party and became the major instrument to attack the CPI (M) and the
organised Left. The degeneration was so complete that it had no other go but
to fade into oblivion. But what proved decisive in the isolation of the naxalites
was the successful and widespread land reform that was led by the organised
Left. This process got statutory backing when the Left Front government came
to power. So the combination of socio-economic development, political and
ideological interventions by the CPI (M) and the organised Left led to the
situation that prevailed in West Bengal during the last three decades. It is
most unfortunate that the present Home Minister of the country is unmindful
of this history of sacrifice and struggle by the organised Left in facing upto the
challenge of ultra Left.

The present phase of Maoist activities began in Lalgarh and adjoining areas in
the Binpur I block of West Medinipur district which is situated along the
Jharkhand border. In the last three years there has been sporadic violence in
the area with murderous attacks on activists of the CPI (M) by armed squads
who crossed over from Jharkhand. The presence of Maoists was suspected
when the Nandigram episode happened. Now the Maoist leaders have
themselves confirmed their involvement in Nandigram and have demanded a
quid pro quo from the Trinamul Congress vis-à-vis their activities in Lalgarh.
The Lalgarh episode was sparked off following police actions in the area in the
wake of a mine blast which was intended to kill the West Bengal Chief Minister
on 2nd November 2008, when he was returning from a programme in Salboni
to inaugurate a steel plant. Incidentally there was no agitation on land
acquisition in the proposed site of the plant neither was any SEZ proposal
involved. The state government, in the wake of allegations that the police had
committed excesses while apprehending the culprits responsible for the mine
blast, had taken action on the basis of those allegations. Police officials were
transferred, injured persons were provided medical treatment and
compensation and some arrested persons released. But the so-called People’s
Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) which had been created was not
interested in anything else but disallowing the entry of the state administration
and the police personnel into the area. Though several rounds of discussions
took place the stalemate continued. It was very clear from their main demand,
for a public apology by the District Superintendent of Police of West Midnapore
district and other policemen by holding their ears and crawling with their nose
to the ground, that the PCAPA was not interested in any resolution of the
issue. Subsequently, it became clear that they were acting as the front of the
Maoists demanding withdrawal of cases against the Maoist squad leader
Shashadhar Mahato who had carried out the assassination attempt on the
West Bengal Chief Minister.

The link between the PCAPA and the Trinamul Congress was also clear from
the very beginning. The PCAPA spokesperson Chhatradhar Mahato,
Sashadhar’s brother, had been a former Trinamul Congress local leader.
Trinamul Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee and other Trinamul leaders had also
attended events organised by the PCAPA in Lalgarh during this phase though
these areas were otherwise out of bounds of the administration. Now even the
Home Minister has admitted in the Rajya Sabha (on 2nd December) that the
PCAPA is “only a front organisation to the CPI (Maoist)”.
Despite the best attempts of the administration to engage the PCAPA, the
Lalgarh area was blockaded and the administration was made out of bounds of
the area since November 2008. This so-called “liberated zone” was used to
launch murderous attacks against the CPI (M) activists and other political
forces who are opposed to the Maoists. Over 80 persons have been killed by
the Maoists in this area during 2008-09, which includes over 70 cadres
and sympathisers of the CPI (M), activists of the Jharkhand Party (Naren) and
election commission personnel. The victims were mostly poor peasants or
agricultural workers from dalit or adivasi families. A CPI (M) supporter and
agricultural worker Salku Soren was killed by the Maoists and his corpse was
kept in the open for several days in order to terrorize the CPI (M) supporters.
A 22 year old college student Abhijit Mahato was assassinated alongwith other
family members by a Maoist squad. All these massacres were justified by the
Maoists in the name of elimination of “class enemies”.

That the people were not with this targeted violence was clear from the
thumping majority with which the CPI (M) candidate won from the Jhargram
(ST) Lok Sabha constituency, securing 59 per cent of the polled votes and
winning by a margin of nearly 3 lakhs, in an election where the Left and the
CPI (M) had otherwise suffered electoral reverses. Since the Lok Sabha
elections, the operations by the state police and the central paramilitary forces
have started and with in few months large areas have been brought under
the control of the civil administration. The state administration has launched a
programme of development and reaching out essential services like food
rations. The Trinamul Congress, on the other hand, aided and abetted by
sections of the media, indulged in stupendous double-speak. They started by
attacking the State Government for failing to control Maoist violence and
questioned why the Maoists were not being banned in West Bengal. When the
Central Government banned the CPI (Maoist) and the State Government
started joint operations with central security forces, the Maoist sympathizers
initiated shrill rhetoric against state repression. The Trinamul Congress obliged
by shifting its stance and opposing the anti-Maoist operations, calling for a
withdrawal of Central security forces. In return, the CPI (Maoist) leader
Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji hailed Mamata Banerjee as their preferred choice
for being the next Chief Minister of West Bengal in an interview to the Bengali
daily Ananda Bazar Patrika on 4th October 2009.


The mainstream media and commentators have talked about
underdevelopment and the discontent of the local tribals as the principal
source of the agitation. But evidence shows that the movement never acquired
a mass character in most parts of the areas spanning the districts of Bankura,
Purulia and West Medinipur which is loosely termed as the Jangalmahal. The
reason was clear. While the region no doubt suffers from backwardness
relative to the more developed areas of West Bengal, the condition of the tribal
people in that region is better compared to the tribal areas of Jharkhand,
Chattisgarh or Orissa where the Maoists appear to be more deeply entrenched.
Over the last 31 years, the land redistributed in West Medinipur district has
benefited 57 per cent of the tribals and other backward communities. Upto
November 2008, 176668 tribals have received pattas for 197350.49 acres.
Similarly, 7829 tribals have received house sites and 23452 of them have been
recorded as bargadars (secured tenants). The critics of the Left have
unfortunately ignored this aspect.

The outbreak of Maoist activities cannot be divorced from the political
background. Binpur assembly under which Lalgarh falls has not been a Left
stronghold; the opposition has won that seat several times. The block level
Panchayat Samiti has been mostly led by the opposition comprising of the
Congress and various factions of the Jharkhand Party. Most of the 10 gram
panchayats have been held by the anti-Left opposition for the last 15 years. It
is clear that the opposition had a strong presence in that particular area as
opposed to the rest of the tribal areas in West Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia.
It is this strength of the opposition which provided the Maoists an initial
ground for initiating their activities. The Maoists’ thesis that the “CPI (M) is a
social fascist force” and therefore any anti-CPI (M) alliance with other
bourgeois parties were justified was used to forge direct links with the
Trinamul Congress and launch murderous attacks on the CPI (M) cadres and
sympathisers.
In its 9th Congress held in Madurai in 1972, in the backdrop of the pincer
attack faced by the Party in West Bengal from the Congress on the one side
and the naxalites on the other, the CPI (M) had made the following assessment
regarding the naxalite movement: “…petty-bourgeois adventurism must
degenerate into an anti-working class, anti-revolutionary line and its inevitable
destiny was to serve the interests of the ruling classes”. The Maoists today
epitomize this degeneration, which has turned them into henchmen of the
Trinamul Congress.

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