Some news about the people’s war in India

Translated repost from November 11, 2018 ISKRA

Created by the merger of the CPI (ML) PW and the MCCI in 2004, at a joint meeting of historic significance between the respective central committees of these two organizations, the CPI (Maoist) is the direct descendant of the followers of the 1967 Naxalbari peasant revolt. The CPI (ML) PW and the MCCI, respectively from Charu Mazumdar’s CPI (ML) founded in 1969 and Kanai Chatterjee’s MCC founded in 1973, have embodied, for many years, the two major currents within Indian Maoism. Three years after the merger of the two central committees and the two armies (the PLA and the PLGA), the unified party held its first congress (known as the Unity Congress) in 2007. Electing a new Central Committee and renewing all the party’s central authorities (its political bureau, central military commission, regional offices, etc.), the Congress adopted strong slogans, such as that of transforming the guerrilla warfare led by the revolutionaries into a movement war.

Since then, the powerful appeal made by the Indian vanguard to all people – workers and peasants, indigenous and oppressed nations – has resounded loudly. The repeated and growing successes of the people’s war in the first decade of this century, within the famous “red corridor”, quickly forced the people’s enemies to retaliate fiercely in an attempt to curb the revolution. Since 2009, the reactionary Indian state has been waging a merciless war against the communists and terrorizing the entire Indian people under the guise of Operation Green Hunt. The creation of army units and divisions specially trained for counter-insurgency, the military presence of US imperialism for training and repression, peasants tortured and executed for example, assassinations camouflaged under false altercations with the Maoists: these are some of the highlights of the past decade. After a difficult period marked by setbacks in former communist strongholds on Indian territory and by arrests of members of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau, the Indian comrades faced repression with courage and composure in order to maintain the initiative. Despite all the enemy’s attempts to crush it, the heroic popular war in India continued and reorganized. Here are some of the news.

Over the past year, the Indian State’s internal reports have repeatedly demonstrated the authorities’ renewed concern at the immense work being done by the Maoists to reorganize themselves in the east of the country. Indian intelligence reports even speak of a resurgence of Maoist activity in Karnataka State, in the southwestern part of the country.

On 8 May 2017, following a meeting led by the Minister of the Interior and attended by representatives of the main Eastern States, the Indian reactionary forces adopted a joint plan to renew the repression effort. Nicknamed SAMADHAN (solution), this plan is a new attempt by the ruling classes to end the persistent presence (or prevent the return) of Maoists in several districts in the east of the country. The objective of this plan: to improve the leadership, motivation and training of anti-naxalite troops, while allowing the reaction to adapt even more to the fight against the communists. Such measures must be constantly implemented by the Indian State to rehabilitate itself. The repression of the revolution in India clearly shows, once again, that in any unjust war, white forces must be constantly reformed and disrupted: since they do not fight for any real reason, serve interests contrary to those of the people and are not driven by any positive conviction, they are easily discouraged.

The joint enforcement plan promised to be accompanied by a renewal of state-of-the-art military equipment. In addition to the armed drones – already available – equipped with body heat detectors to detect PLGA soldiers hidden in the jungle, special rifles made with biometric triggers should now appear. Such rifles are supposed to be unusable by anyone except their original owner. This investment for rifles of this nature stems from the Indian army’s desire to prevent the communists from using against it the weapons they recover after defeating the Indian state forces.

Just over a year after the adoption of this joint plan by the people’s enemies, the Maoists retaliated with their own plan. The ERB (Eastern Regional Office) of the CPI (Maoist) decentralized an 11-page document last summer presenting a counter-offensive plan nicknamed GHAMASAN (pride). According to the Indian press, this document contains important elements of an assessment of the fight against Operation Green Hunt that began at the beginning of the decade. Promising to increase and develop armed actions and strengthen the party’s link with the masses, this Maoist initiative is excellent news for the Indian revolution. It should be recalled that the Eastern Regional Office is one of the most important central bodies of the IPC (Maoist). According to information in the bourgeois press, eight members of the Central Committee are reported to be on the committee and it would be under the immediate direction of Kishan. Comrade Kishan is a veteran of the Indian revolution; he was the Secretary General of the MCCI and is now a member of the senior leadership of the CPI (Maoist). The Eastern Regional Office has under its direction, among others, the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam.

The east of the country remains one of the most important areas of the Indian revolution. The Jharkhand Forest is the supposed place where the party’s permanent central leadership would have established its headquarters. The reason for this is that the Jharkhand Forest remains an area that is difficult to access and difficult for the reactionary forces to catch. West Bengal State, for its part, is the historical focus of the Naxalbari peasant revolt and has played a leading role in the training of several generations of communists. Work in this part of the territory had suffered a major setback following the 2011 assassination of Kishenji, a highly qualified member of the Central Committee responsible for the region. As such setbacks are only temporary, Indian intelligence reports have recently begun to express the authorities’ concern about the Maoists’ return to West Bengal in force and the reorganization of the party committee in charge of the region. New armed squads have been trained and have begun to take action. These squads would be under the direct authority of Comrade Akash, the committee secretary at the heart of this reorganization and supervising this entire part of the territory.

The red corridor, as the Indian state terrorously called it, is being rebuilt, fight after fight. This corridor, running along eastern India from centre to south, brought together the main sectors of activity of the people’s war. This zone, composed of several states, each comprising several dozen districts, constituted the most important sphere of influence of the Maoists following the powerful revolutionary impulse caused by the 2004 merger. In addition to the already appointed Eastern States, they included the States of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, as well as some districts of Orrisa and Karnataka. The presence of the Maoists in this part of the country is also due to the long political work carried out by the Naxalite movement during its historical progression. The process of general guerrilla expansion in the territory gradually took the form, after 1967, of a southward deployment from West Bengal.

Recently, the CPI (Maoist) called for a boycott of the upcoming legislative elections in two of these states, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. The communists called on the masses of the people to reject reformist illusions, continuing the long tradition of boycotting elections and armed contestation of parliamentarianism that has developed in India since the 1960s. Elections are scheduled for 12 and 20 November in Telangana and 7 December in Chhattisgarh. Legislative elections are held annually in India, with an annual rotation between states – which means that elections are held every four years in each state. These were all opportunities for the people’s war to fight the reaction and put forward the new power under construction.

Telangana State was created in 2014 from a former section of Andhra Pradesh State. Andhra Pradesh was, during the 1980s and 1990s, one of the bastions of the CPI (ML) PW and the Naxalite movement. The counter-insurgency took pride in having succeeded in significantly reducing the Maoists’ action in this crucial area. The organization of the boycott of the elections in Telangana is therefore excellent news. As for the State of Chhattisgarh, it has been, in recent years, one of the pillars of the popular war and still constitutes one of the states with the largest number of districts subject to the influence and action of the communists.

To give an example of the type of actions carried out by the Maoists in that State, an explosive attack that killed four police officers took place there a few days ago. Such an attack is part of the popular war’s struggle against reactionary elections. This form of struggle was greatly developed in India by the Maoist guerrillas, forcing the Indian army to develop its own jargon to refer to it – the famous IED (improvised explosive device) – and to train its corps of specialists to try to defend itself against it, without much success. American imperialism, terrified, had to react in a similar way to the military and political creativity of the Vietnamese people.

The people’s war in India is a heroic struggle of international scope! Communists and peoples around the world are watching the progress of this revolution and are following events with great interest.

Let us support the people’s war in India!

Long live the CPI (Maoist)!