The Sangh Parivar sponsored, Modi led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government that came to power by criticising several of UPA’s policies is not only aggressively pursuing all the pro-imperialist and pro-corporate policies of UPA-1 and 2, but is also surpassing them, vying for the post of ‘best comprador ever’ from the imperialists. It is taking up aggressive moves to sell-out the country shamelessly in the name of developing it by bringing in as much FDI as possible (the goal being 100%) into several key sectors including defence, railways, insurance, banking, media and into those sectors that are still untouched directly due to resistance of the people and contradictions within the ruling classes.
Pro-capitalist (or anti-worker) amendments to labour laws, hike in passenger and freight fares in railways, price hikes of daily commodities, petrol, diesel hikes and electricity cuts, transferring seven Telangana mandals to Andhra Pradesh against the will of the people, speeding up construction of the destructive Polavaram project as a national project, naked projection of Hindu chauvinism, saffronisation of education, attacks on dalits and targeting of Muslims in the name of ‘communal riots’ are just a few of its anti-people measures. These fascists amended several laws concerning economic, political, social, cultural and environmental fields that preserved the rights of the people and the country at least to some extent and threw several laws into the dust bin. They passed several anti-people and treacherous bills during the first session of the parliament.
They did all this with their so-called brute majority and declared that they would do whatever they wish. Some people have euphemistically termed this government UPA-3; the continuity of the anti-people measures was too obvious to miss. But Modi and Co. do make a difference. Otherwise the imperialists and the Indian ruling classes would not have spent thousands of crores of rupees to bring them into power at this juncture.
The agenda hasn’t changed. But the pace has reached an unprecedented haste. The imperialists need to overcome their economic crisis and the comprador ruling classes need to collaborate more with them. For that they need to loot the natural wealth, markets and labour power of countries like India, for that they need to exploit the working masses more, for that they need to establish more control and for that they need to crush the resistance of the people to their so-called development projects. For that they need to wipe out the Maoists who are ‘the biggest threat’ to their loot of this country, who are in the and leading the fight against them and building a new political power of the people and an alternative model of development with the aim of building our beloved country as a genuine independent, sovereign, self-reliant and federal democratic republic.
The difference that No.1 traitors and fascists Modi and Co. could make would be in the scale of aggressiveness in pursuing these policies, the intensification of brutality that would be perpetrated on those who oppose them in any manner, in the overt acceleration of the saffron agenda and the speeding up of the sell-out of the country – all in the name of building a ‘powerful India’ and maintaining internal security and peace. And this is all the more true in case of Operation Green Hunt (OGH), which is nothing but a war waged by the Indian ruling classes and its state on its own people. This brutal multi-pronged countrywide offensive on people’s various resistances, particularly targeting the Maoist movement, has been raging unabated, since its launch in mid- 2009 by the UPA-2 government till date.
The preparations for this OGH (War on People)-Third Phase are going on at a rapid pace led by the fascist Modi-Rajnath Singh-Arun Jaitley-Venkaiah Naidu-Sushma Swaraj-Amit Shah combine, with all the Chief Ministers, DGPs of the ‘Maoist-affected’ States, top officials of Army, Air Force, paramilitary and police playing a hyper-active role. Evidence of this is galore and glaring from the very first day of the NDA government. All the Chief Ministers (CMs) of the States where Maoist movement is present made a beeline to the Prime Minister (PM) not only for funds for their States from the Centre, but also for reiterating their demands for more powers, funds, weapons, forces, vehicles and other paraphernalia for their forces and the entire executive in the name of suppressing Maoist movement.
The Centre willingly obliged and promised more in a series of meetings conducted to deal with all kinds of ‘terrorism’, mainly Maoism. New governments formed after the recent assembly elections (2013 and 2014) in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have all announced plans to modernise their police forces which mean equipping them with more lethal weapons and gadgets that would more ‘efficiently’ wage war on people and terrorise and kill them. The ‘promises’ to Chhattisgarh are representative. Chandrababu Naidu, the CM of AP went a step ahead and started his rule by killing three Maoists in a fake encounter on the very first day.
The bloodthirsty home minister Rajnath Singh announced that an integrated and comprehensive strategy to root out the Maoist movement in the country would be soon finalised. On June 11, 2014 after a detailed review of the ‘Left-wing extremism (LWE)’ situation in Chhattisgarh with State Chief Minister Raman Singh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh promised around 10,000 additional paramilitary troops(10 battalions) within 3, 4 months, even while 37 battalions of CRPF, BSF, ITBP and SSB are already present. He also promised to send 2 technical battalions with nearly 2000 multi-skilled, engineering and technical personnel. Two more choppers would be inducted into the counter-‘LWE’ grid in Chhattisgarh. The helicopters are for ‘troop deployment or sending reinforcements when State forces plan to attack Maoists or ‘an encounter is on’. The special focus of the meeting was on Bastar region.
The CM also sought improved technology for IED detection, augmented UAV deployment, air mobility for operations and secure and encrypted communication. The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, Union home secretary Anil Goswami, paramilitary chiefs, and senior officials of the Planning Commission, Ministry of Environment and Forests and Department of Telecom. If anybody is wondering what these bodies were doing at a meeting on LWE, the answer is here. Complaining that ‘abysmal 25% telecom coverage in Bastar was affecting intelligence collection and timely response by the Central forces’, the Chhattisgarh government sought to increase in tele-connectivity and density. They Central authorities even promised to ‘do what is best possible’ ‘to tweak forest clearance norms to exempt government projects’ as requested by the State government.
The nearly 2,000 multi-skilled personnel with technical knowledge (technical battalions) are ‘for carrying out development work in Maoist-hit areas’ as the CM lamented about ‘shortage of contractors.’ Collectors and SPs would now monitor this work using these battalions. Paramilitary battalions have already been deployed on a huge scale for the Raoghat and several other mines, building dams, roads, bridges and Raoghat railway line that not only aims to transfer the iron ore to the big comprador companies and MNCs but is also ecologically highly destructive. All these forces would serve ‘multi-purposes’ – to suppress the masses, attack the Maoists, to reinforce the camps of government force, to provide protection to so-called development which actually means building infrastructure to transfer the mining riches, and constructing several steel and other plants in the heartland of Bastar. With BJP in power both at the Centre and the State the ‘war on people’ would be carried on more ruthlessly as a more centralised, coordinated, country-wide offensive.
There would now be more coordination between Central and State governments, between State governments, between Central and State forces, intelligence agencies and police force and between police and executive. In a high level meeting conducted by Rajnath Singh with Air Force, police and top officials of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand on June 27, the Home Minister praised to the skies the Grey Hounds of AP and urged the State governments to train and restructure their Special Forces (like STF in Chhattisgarh, SOG in Odisha, C-60 in Maharashtra, Counter-Insurgency Force in Jharkhand, Thunderbolts in Keralam) and build infrastructure for these forces. The efforts are on. Their numbers would be augmented and their intelligence wings would also be expanded.
Taking a leaf from erstwhile AP, a SP level OSD has now been appointed in all districts and the OSD was given all powers to conduct attacks on Maoists. The Grey Hounds model means that they take intelligence inputs from police headquarters and directly go for offensives. Rs. 150 crores were released for building 75 attack-proof police stations in ‘naxal-affected’ districts of Chhattisgarh. Additional funds were released for Special Infrastructure Scheme (for building bunkers, toilet bunkers and morcha points for the government forces). On August 20, 2014, the Union Cabinet approved the extension of mobile telephonic services to 2,199 locations affected by ‘LWE’ in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Paschim Banga.
The BSNL has already installed towers at 363 of these locations. The project implementation cost is approximately Rs. 35.68 billion. According to the intensification of the ‘war on people’, Bastar Range would be divided into four parts as part of the ‘counter-LWE grid system’ with one camp established for every five kms. As part of this grid, ‘crucial areas’ (strong areas of Maoist activity) would be identified to form network, conduct attacks and wipe out the Maoists. This would be done along Chhattisgarh’s borders with neighbouring states. This type of concentration would be done in all tri and quadric junctions of various States in the country.
Already there are 120 battalions of paramilitary forces stationed in nine States. After Rajnath Singh was sworn in, he planned to send 27 battalions to be additionally deployed in nine States. Prices for the heads of the Maoist leadership right from the Central Committee/Politburo to the village level leaders was increased, almost five times, to several crores of rupees, by the Central and various State governments. This is nothing but a counter- revolutionary measure that further fascises the State, encourages false encounters and mercenary killings and creates heinous selfish and criminal values in the society. Killing leaders and activists or putting them in jail was announced as the two-pronged policy to decimate revolutionary forces, make the movement headless and to restrict or weaken the movement areas.
On the other hand, the compensation for the counter-revolutionaries who are punished by the people and for being diehard informers or coverts has been increased hugely (almost four-five times) along with all kinds of rehabilitation packages. Terrorising activists of mass organisations and drives to make them and Maoist cadre surrender reached high-pitch with promises of freedom from cases and high rewards. The undercover agenda is to turn them into counter-revolutionaries and traitors who could inflict damages to the movement. A six months campaign by joint Central and State forces was announced for all Maoist areas, starting with Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Both these States witnessed maximum resistance of People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) and the people to the corporate ventures. They announced that the focus of their offensive would be Chhattisgarh as it is one of the main strong areas of Maoist movement and at the centre of almost all the movement areas (AP, Telangana, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra and UP) and as BJP is in power both at the Centre and the State.
The main focus in the third phase of OGH would be on the Maad areas in Bastar. Another feature of this phase would be engagement of huge numbers of forces during operations in all the main areas. The state is on the one hand destroying the Revolutionary People’s Committees (RPC) that are enabling the people execute their new democratic power and striving to make them self-reliant. On the other hand it is flooding the people of movement areas with Civic Action Programs (CAPs) increasingly led by paramilitary and state forces, so- called reforms and countless schemes that make the people dependent on the government forever. Neither their basic needs are solved through this nor do they become self-reliant. They would be further ruined and thrown away while the fascist corporate and MNCs raj will reign. 100 ‘commandogs’ (commando dogs!) are being trained to be deployed along with each paramilitary battalion in Chhattisgarh – one dog at present and four later to each.
Hundreds of retired military personnel of infantry are being deployed in Chhattisgarh since 2 years. This came to light when two of them were annihilated in March in Sukma in a counter-offensive of the PLGA forces. Raman Singh is demanding that they be given permission to appoint retired military personnel up to Brigadier rank. The Air Force is shifting its UAV operational base from Hyderabad to Durg so that it can do quick surveillance, send intelligence inputs to the forces and attack the Maoists immediately. Air strips are being prepared in several new places. Several trees are being cut off and forests cleared for building camps and other infrastructure for the more than one lakh forces deployed in Bastar Range causing enormous damage to ecology too. The already insufficient school and health care facilities supposedly set up for the people are being used by these forces in spite of Supreme Court judgment to vacate them, thus depriving the people of even those meagre facilities.
The ‘usual’ encounters and fake encounters (of both revolutionaries and common people) are on with not a single day passing in the movement areas without cordon and search & combing operations, areas dominations, loot, destruction, mayhem, tortures and atrocities on people by the government forces. Attacks, political and physical, on any kind of opposition, trampling of civil rights, ban on CPI (Maoist) and revolutionary workers’, peasants’, students’ and women’s and children’s organisations, threats and attacks on revolutionary and democratic organisations and severe repression in various forms on political prisoners incarcerated in prisons all over the country are continuing unabated. A large number of Nazi type (modern) jails are under construction. Home Minister Rajnath Singh is openly baying for the blood of Maoists like bloodhounds; issuing threats of ‘zero tolerance to violence’ (read more fake encounters, arrests and tortures) while saying that he is ‘ready to talk with the Maoists if they give up violence’. He is saying this after he declared like a feudal medieval lord that he would as happy as conducting a marriage if the security forces penetrate into the forests and kill the ‘terrorists’!
Here ‘terrorists’ mean Maoists as he is planning to change the name of ‘Left-Wing Extremism’ to ‘Left-Wing Terrorism’. The huge number of troops, weapons, vehicles, military equipment and gadgets (not to mention the UAVs and the helicopters) of government forces deployed in the ‘Maoist areas’ are perpetrating endless violence on the people there. The violence of these forces can never be compared with the counter-violence put up by the CPI (Maoist) and the PLGA and the people led by it either in volume or quality. But the psychological warfare of the ruling classes is day in and day out drumming into the people’s mind that ‘Maoists are violent and anti-development’ while the ‘government seeks peace’.
The psy-war targeting the CPI (Maoist) reached unimaginable proportions with corporate media leading it and the active participation of all the civil, police and military officials and all departments of the executive and judiciary in this foul exercise. The degenerated surrendered persons are also pushed to the frontlines to carry on this vicious war with all kinds of lies and fabrications. The specific feature of OGH under Modi regime is that all the Hindu communal fascist Sangh Parivar constituents would participate in it at various levels and in various spheres. The National Executive Council of ABVP giving a call to its rank and file to ensure that ‘there are naxal free campuses’ during its meet in Mangaluru in May is an indicator.
Beloved People of our country! Whatever we have mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg of one of the most treacherous, anti-people, heinous, criminal and brutal offensives launched in political, economic, social, cultural, judicial, environmental and all spheres of our life and the country in the name of maintaining internal security for crushing dissent and wiping out the Maoists. We reiterate that Maoists and all other fighting forces are none other than the vanguard and organisations of the most oppressed people of our country and are comprised of none other than workers, peasants, students, youth, employees, intellectuals, middle class, dalits, adivasis, minorities and women who build the wealth of this country with their sweat and blood.
They have chosen the path of struggle as they have been deprived of their Jal, Jungle, Zameen, Izzat and Adhikar and as their country is being enmeshed more and more in neo-colonial ties by the Indian ruling classes with the prodding of the imperialists. The ‘War on People’ is aimed at ending all types of this resistance We are calling upon all the revolutionary masses in our movement areas to unite more determinedly under the PLGA to resist this round of fascist offensive launched as part of OGH-third phase.
The CPI (Maoist) and the PLGA, RPCs, the revolutionary mass organisations and the revolutionary massed led by it vow to defeat this round of fascist offensive of the Modi led NDA government too as they had defeated several previous counter-revolutionary campaigns. This could be done only by waging war of self-defense utilising every single opportunity and mobilising and uniting all the fighting forces (revolutionary, democratic, patriotic) and the people vastly in this just people’s war, now directed against this fascist and treacherous Modi government. In the past dictators like Mussolinis and Hitlers had similarly waged unjust wars, and heaped countless atrocities and brutalities on people and countries. But ultimately their mighty armies were defeated, their empires crumbled and they fell when people rose in fury.
People had always fought against such fascists in the world and our country and they would do so now too. The more the people realise the real face of these fascists, the more unitedly they come together to fight them, the quicker would be their fall. The day when these paper tigers would be shred into pieces is not as far as they would like to think. We appeal to all the organisations, forces, individuals and people who suffer from and oppose the Brahminical Hindu fascist, anti-people and anti-country regressive Modi government to unite and come forward to resist and defeat it. We appeal to one and all to build up solidarity with the fighting people both in our country and abroad.
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Press Release 25-9- 2014
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