People's Democracy

ORISSA

CPI(M) Holds Protest Actions Against Maoist Violence

Dusmanta Kumar Das

THE Orissa state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to expose and oppose the Maoists attacks on its cadres, leaders and common innocent people in the state. It has decided to launch a political and ideological campaign, together with a mass mobilisation drive through rallies, demonstrations and meetings throughout the state, in order to oppose the murderous politics of Maoist terrorists and expose the imperialist game plan behind it.

As per the call by the CPI(M) state committee on February 1, rallies and demonstrations were organised at various places in the state.

It may be mentioned here that the Maoists have made the CPI(M) and the CITU in Orissa their special targets. Just before the parliamentary elections in 2009, they murdered a CPI(M) leader, Comrade Rabi Oram who was a trade union activist. Recently, they abducted a CPI(M) member and CITU activist, Comrade Thomas Munda, while he was working in the Kalta Mines in Sundargarh district. Two days after his abduction, Comrade Munda was killed and his body was found lying close to the nearby Rajendra railway station on January 28. A week earlier, they had abducted Sundargarh district Zilla Parishad member and CPI(M) leader, Comrade Anandamasi Horo, from Roxy (Jamudih) but released him five days later. His Maoist abductors also threatened him woth dire consequences if he does not quit the CPI(M) and the CITU.

All this is obviously a part of the Maoist threat to physically liquidate the CPI(M) and CITU leaders.

On the other hand, the state police is completely inactive and has left many areas unguarded, with the result that lawless rule of the Maoists prevails there. In Sundargarh district, as many as 3,000 tribal people are on a continuous dharna for the last one and a half months in front of the K Balang police station, demanding protection so that they could live peacefully in their thatched house. But the state administration is yet to respond to their justified demand.

It was against all this menace of the Maoists and the lackadaisical attitude of the state and central governments that the CPI(M) organised protest actions in the state capital Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Brahmapur, Puri, Bhadrak, Kakudakhandi, Jaipur Road, and Kendrapada. State and district leader of the party addressed these meetings and demonstrations. The party has planned protest actions at other centres as well. It has decided to meet the Maoists menace politically, ideologically and organisationally.

In the last week of January, a state level delegation of the CPI(M), led by its state secretary Janardan Pati, met the chief minister of Orissa and demanded adequate protection against the Maoists violence and threat. He later informed the media that the political campaign and organisational activities against the Maoist depredations would be further intensified.