CPP-NPA In Southern Tagalog Stages Film Showing And Study Meeting In Opposition To Operation Kagaar In India

Ang Bayan

August 25, 2024

Party members and New People’s Army (NPA)-Southern Tagalog (Melito Glor Command) Red fighters launched various types of activities last July as part of the Month of Solidarity with the Indian people against Operation Kagaar. This is a response of the Southern Tagalog revolutionary forces to the call of the Central Committee to support the Indian people on June 20-July 20.

Operation Kagaar was a military campaign implemented by the reactionary central and state governments of India that began in January in parts of Central India against the armed struggle led by the CPI (Maoist). This is part of the larger counter-insurgency operation Operation SAMADHAN-Prahar that was launched in 2017.

The July issue of Kalatas, a revolutionary people’s newspaper in Southern Tagalog, reported that a platoon of the NPA screened a documentary about the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) in India. They used the film to introduce the revolutionary struggle of the Indian people to the comrades.

After the documentary, indigenous Red fighter Ka Leo asked if NPAs were also in India. The platoon’s political instructor explained that the fighters in India are members of the PLGA, not the NPA. “But they are just like us,” said the instructor. “They are farmers, indigenous people and women who took up arms to defend their land from foreigners. A communist party also leads them.”

Apart from the film, NPA-Southern Tagalog also conducted a six-part series of studies and cultural activities about the Indian revolution, Kalatas said. This includes studying the memorandum and primer on Operation Kagaar issued by the Party.

The fighters also discussed the February Ang Bayan article about the PLGA’s successful offensive against the Indian state armed forces that resulted in the death of 35 butchers and 40 seriously injured. The Red fighters were greatly impressed and this served as an inspiration for their efforts in the armed struggle.

National Democratic Front of the Philippines allied organizations from Southern Tagalog also issued statements of solidarity. They also designed a poster depicting the unity of the revolutionary movement of the Philippines and India.

“The state of society in the Philippines is very similar (to India). Even the work of the PLGA is like ours,” observed comrades in another platoon of the people’s army. Subsequently, the Red fighters explained what they had learned about the Indian revolution in their discussions with the peasant and indigenous masses.