People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
08
February 21, 2010
|
Vol. XXXIV
No.
08 February 21, 2010 |
THE assault led by trained
gunmen of 'Maoists' on the
Silda camp of the Eastern Frontier Rifles, has attracted wide coverage
in the
bourgeois media. But the coverage of the
attack and its aftermath has been �more-than-in-depth� � concocted
tales
dovetailed to facts and �factions� added
in good measure to bolster the anti-Communist frame of mind of the
scions of
the ruling classes whose interests the craven and cowardly �Maoists�
faithfully
subserve.
The attack itself was not a
failure of the state
government as Mamata Banerjee would have us believe.
The Silda EFR camp has about 100
personnel. They are equipped with SLRs
as well as .303 rifles plus other sharp assault weapons.
They wear light gray-and-deep gray fatigue
style uniform and wear protective headgear. Bullet proof vests are de rigueur only whenever they go out on
patrol.
The attack came in the busy
market day afternoon of
February 15. This is a common enough
tactics of the ruling classes-sponsored �urban guerrillas' of the Latin
American and the sub-Saharan African countries where, as in the case of
the
�Maoists� here, the gurilleros have
always maintained a network of connection with the ruling �lite of the
respective regions, catering to the political command faithfully. During market time, we shall underline, the
ruthless attackers can fire away, but not the police nor the
para-military
forces.
The attackers had made repeated recce of the camp grounds, we learnt, posing variously as
nautch girls, beggars, �disabled�
persons, and even �folk singers.� Sources tell us that this they had
carried
out for months on end. The attackers were at least 100-odd in number,
including
20 women, and each armed with sophisticated assault rifles fitted with
bayonets,
as we found out during our visit to the spot, looking at the dead with
multiple
injuries, and a series of sad and tragic sights met us, leaving us
atremble
with pure rage.
Silda is tucked away in between
Lalgarh and Belpahari,
clearly a zone dominated by the presence of a large stretch of
cover-giving
forest and foliage, ever-green, so that winter makes no change to the
skyline.
An afternoon is the time when the morning patrol returns to base, the
personnel
take off the uniforms, and vests, and helmets, sling up the weaponry on
the
closets, remove the heavy-soled leathern jackboots, and nurse sore
bodies and
legs. The evening patrol goes out and away on foot tagged along and
preceded by
mine-sweeping four-wheelers, deep into the forest bridle paths.
This was the time when the
�Maoists� struck. They lobbed a series of
petrol bombs or
�Molotov cocktails,� on the eastern and southern sides of the camp. As the panic-struck people ran
helter-skelter, the killers opened up with whatever they had on hand. The area having been cleared, they then moved
in rapid strides inside the camp.
The counter-firing from inside
left at least twelve
�Maoists� dead, but that did not deter the attackers who shot and
bayoneted to
death 26 of the para military personnel, systematically looted the
armoury,
went running to vehicles that had zoomed in from the fringe areas via
perhaps a
harsh command over Sat-Phones, piled the weapons and the dead murderers
on the
min-vans, and fled, one group towards Bankura, the other towards
Jharkhand.
They dragged off the dead attackers as is usual for them.
Seven ministers of the Bengal
Left Front government
led by Dr Asim Dasgupta went to the EFR base HQ at Salua the next day,
the
minute the clearance came from the police.
They spoke to the bereaved family members. They assured them of
all
help, and despite provocation being made by a section of the people,
there was
no such incident of jostle as blared on the television channels and
splashed on
the media headlines.
The more difficult enigma to
unfold is the �reason
why� the left sectarians and their lackeys in the rainbow opposition
coalition
took the political decision to go on such a big-scale military action? Consider the following facts, if you will.
Over the past fortnight, 20-odd
top-ranking �Maoist�
leaders and at least 50 �Maoist� activists have been taken into custody
and
interrogated. Raids on a hideout had
produced laptops full of data on the outfit and its plans of action in
the days
to come. There has also been a clear caste-based split in the ranks of
the
killers of late, the Amiya Kundu fraction opposing, with arms, the
Karan
Hembram splinter. In the echelons of the higher castes, the Mahatos
opposed all
other high-caste compradres,
especially the Vaishyas.
�Kishanji� no longer dares speak
to the media
openly. Another shadowy killer �Vikash�
has mysteriously disappeared, and sources believe that he may well have
been
killed or left seriously injured in a police action last month near
Dharampur. The armed split between the
now-incarcerated Chhatradhar Mahato-led PCAPA and the �Maoist� squads
of the
Lalgarh block has come into the open.
The metropolis-based �civil society� would prefer Mamata
Banerjee,
railway committees, fat perks et al,
to the wilderness of politics, members of the
ruling �lite as they very much are.
However, certainly by far the
most important factor is
that the villagers are no longer fearful of the profile of the �Maoist�
gunmen
whom they perceive on odd hours along the entire western part of the
red clay
zone of Bengal. It would be incorrect to
read too much into this as some well-wishers of us have done to the
extent that
the villagers are seen to be rebelling against the mightily armed
marauders. However, the CPI(M) has been
active in organising
the mass protests leading into mass resistance here and there.
Economics is another factor. The �Maoists� have carried on withour
investment a lucrative trade in felling trees, logging them, and
establishing a
nexus with the forest mafia. This could
only be done with at least a reluctant, fear-laden participation of the
rural
masses. This chain of exploitation has
been snapped in very many areas as the tree-cutters, the headload
carriers, and
the forestry smugglers have learnt that getting cosy with the 'Maoists'
was
costing them too much � in terms of livelihoods as well as lives.
In the meanwhile, Mamata
Banerjee has blamed the state
government for the tragedy that unfolded at Silda.
The central government has wondered about a
�failure� of the state government. So,
what is new?
What is new is the continuously
rising curve of
people�s anger at the killings going on.
This shall be a vastly worrying factor for the guilty whose
hands have
been seen dipped in the blood of the innocent, too many times now.
When the union home minister P
Chidambaram came to
Kolkata to meet the chief ministers of Bengal, Orissa, and Jharkhand
over the modus
operandi to �tackle �Maoist� violence,� chief minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya handed over to him a slim document that summed up the
continuity
of developmental work going on relentlessly, with the welfare of the
poor
firmly in sight, in the violence-affected jangal
mahal.
We can briefly summarise the
basic premises of the six
page document, thus.
The document clearly shows how
the pro-poor
developmental efforts could be carried on relentlessly by the popular
Bengal
Left Front government despite obstacles of every kind having been
thrown on the
path of progress, and the bourgeois media have been at their best
(worst?)
trying spread canards about how the red clay zones remain in the
backwater of
development.
