People's Democracy

Editorial

Maoist Violence Seeks To Destabilise Elected State Govt

AS we go to press, the anti-Communist incendiary violence unleashed by the Maoists continues unabated in Lalgarh, West Midnapore district of West Bengal.  During the last three days, 15 CPI(M) leaders have been murdered by the Maoists. Many of the CPI(M) offices were burnt and ransacked.  In all these violent activities, the Maoists have been using the helpless tribals, having terrorised them, as their front. 

By now it has been established that the so-called `rainbow' coalition of all anti-Communist forces led by the Trinamool Congress had sheltered all sorts of elements and legitimised Maoist activities in West Bengal.  The earlier violence unleashed by  this anti-Communist alliance in Singur and Nandigram helped the Maoists to entrench themselves. However, unlike in Nandigram, where the Maoists were operating behind  the Trinamool banner, now in Lalgarh, it is the Trinamool Congress that is openly aiding and abetting the Maoists to unleash such violence. 

The Maoists are operating under the banner of the Police Atyachar Birodhi Janagana Committee (PABJC). This is led by one Chhatradhar Mahato who until recently was in Trinamool Congress.  He is the brother of Sashobhar Mahato, the prime accused in last November's plot to assassinate chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya who was then travelling with the then union minister, Ram Vilas Paswan.  The landmine blasts designed to achieve this objective exploded in nearby Salboni, 40 kilometers away from Lalgarh. 

All through Tuesday, June 16, when the Maoists unleashed such violence that culminated in the burning of the CPI(M) office, the local Trinamool Congress leaders accompanied the mob.  Media reports the leader saying, �It is the Communists vs all others now�.  Though the district Congress president was not physically present, he had to send his relatives saying �that was the diktat from the organisers�. 

Media reports that the Maoists have prevented the family members from even taking the deadbodies for a decent funeral.  There are also reports that the entire area has been rigged with landmines  to prevent the security forces and the police from reaching  them.  Clearly,  like they did in Nandigram for nearly a year, they wish to keep the Lalgarh region out of the ambit of any civic administration.  Thus, they seek to create  a �liberated zone� to further their activities by terrorising the local population into submission.  The modus operandi is similar to what the Trinamool Congress has done last week in Khejuri.  The aim is to establish their political base by eliminating the CPI(M) cadre physically and terrorise the rest of the population.  Such a supremely anti-democratic and fascistic modus operandi of the Trinamool Congress led combine has facilitated the penetration of the Maoists in the area. 

The prime minister is on record, saying: �Maoist violence is the single biggest danger for internal security in our country�.  The Maoists themselves have publicly stated in mainstream media at the time of the Nandigram disturbances, �The Maoists stepped into Nandigram in January 2007 and quickly put together a party unit.  They rustled up a 350 strong people's militia and fought.�  Further, �The ammunition was mostly supplied by local Trinamool leaders.�

For the past few years, the Maoists had been  accumulating arms through various raids on ordinance factories and police outposts.  The Defence Quarterly, a respected defence journal, says in early 2007: �As recent as in October 2006, the Indian army recovered a massive cache of state manufactured arms and ammunition in the eastern state of Kolkata.  Three people including a soldier were arrested in (this) connection�.  In an October  3, 2006 BBC report, an army spokesman said: �The cache of arms was meant for Maoist rebels and other terrorist groups active in and around  eastern West Bengal state�. 

At the time of the Nandigram disturbances, a Maoist leader had mocked at the Trinamool Congress saying: �They think they are the leaders, they are not; but we are the ones who are actually controlling�.  On this occasion in Lalgarh, it is openly acknowledged that the violence is unleashed by the Maoists and the Trinamool Congress and the others are following their `leader'.  Clearly, the objective here is to destabilise the elected state government through Maoist violence.

It is a gross abuse of Indian parliamentary democracy that those who have taken oath under the constitution to serve as ministers in the central government are, themselves, leading and participating in the most unconstitutional and illegal orgy of violence resulting in large-scale loss of human life and destruction of property.  The Congress party heading the central government far from being uncomfortable is an accomplice in this gross violation of the  Indian constitution. 

Such a state of anarchy and designed unleashing of violence cannot be tolerated in any civil society.  The West Bengal state government has asked for central assistance in dealing with this situation.  The central and state governments  must urgently act in unison, in the interests of the country and its constitutional scheme of things, to immediately restore normalcy in both East and West Midnapore districts of West Bengal and reestablish  the rule of law and civic administration. 

June 17, 2009 6 p.m.