It took more than 40 years for the CPI (Maoists), the metamorphosis of CPI (ML), to prove that history does repeat but it does so as a farce. In 1967, the peasant uprising in Naxalbari had sent red jitters all over the country whereas in 2009, the red has faded out in a place ironically called Lalgarh, the red bastion!
In April, 1969, CPI(ML) was born out of CPI(M) as an aftermath of the Naxalbari incident in 1967. A section of Communist Party of India (Marxist) led by Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal of the Siliguri District Committee of CPI(M), supported a violent peasant uprising in 1967, trying to develop a "revolutionary opposition" to the CPI(M) leadership. The insurrection had started on May 25, 1967 in Naxalbari village, at the time when the United front Government formed by Bangla Congress, CPI(M), CPI and 12 other parties was ruling in West Bengal.
Led by Charu Mazumdar, initially, an All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was formed in November 1967 a pro- China splinter-group of Communist Party of India (Marxist) that functioned as an inner-party faction. On April 22, 1969 AICCCR formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
The insoluble contradiction and the pathological hatred between the CPI(M) and CPI(Maoist) in 2009, goes back to the formative years of CPI(ML) which had broken away from CPI(M) after the Naxalbari movement. This is what Charu had commented about the CPI (M) led United front Government in 1968,
“At present much hullaballoo is being raised in India over the so-called united front. This united front is, however, nothing more than the ganging up of some reactionary parties to gain power….But it is necessary to have a close look at the United Fronts formed in West Bengal and Kerala in particular. This is because the Left Communists happen to be the largest constituent party in the United Fronts in both these states. This has clearly shown that the Left Communist Party as such is unworthy of being called Communist. They are merely the running dogs of the foreign and Indian reaction and of the Soviet revisionists….”
With time, the differences multiplied between the two parties, with CPI (M) preferring the parliamentary path towards “socialism” whereas the CPI (ML) and later on the CPI (Maoist) going for the revolutionary path of “armed struggle”. On the land question, right at the outset, the protagonists of Naxalbari movement declared the appropriation of land by the use of revolutionary force whereas the CPI (M) chose to carry out the land reform in accordance with law. To a large extent CPI (M) could utilize the law to distribute land and that led to their vote bank amongst the Bengal peasantry for 30 years.
Nandigram and Singur howeverhave changed all that cultivated pro-peasantry image of CPI(M) which is now perceived the as the partytaking away the land of the peasantry and handing it over to the Tatas or the foreign companies. The bankrupt policy of CPI (M) to ally with the big Indian bourgeois as well as the global capital to fuel their industrial development dug their grave in Lalgarh. The tragedy is that the Maoists are lending a helping hand to Trinumul Congress to dig that grave. Stuck to the jungles in search of their semi-feudal line, the Maoist put into practice their theory of “Annihilation of the class enemy” on the fattened cadre of CPI (M) and slaughtered several of them. What a farce my comrades!
The two leading “communists parties” of India, namely, the CPI(M) and the CPI(Maoists) going for each others jugular in Lalgarh would have warmed the hearts of the rightists but for their own deep differences. After the debacle in the 15th Loksabha elections, the rath of L.K.Advani seems to have got stuck in the virulent mud of failed Hindutva. Varun Gandhi’s limb-chopping histrionics did not disturb the minority moral whatsoever; in fact such vulgarity united the minorities behind Congress and chopped off whatever little chance the BJP had to come near the power centre. The humiliating defeat of the BJP led to further conflicts within the Sangh-Parivar.
It may be recalled that these two organizations had declared a Gujarat Bandh on 28th February, 2002 and by instigating the emotions of the majority, had made an unholy union to massacre the Muslims to “avenge” the death of 58 karsevaks who had tragically died in the burning of the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express on the previous day. But recently, when the VHP called for Surat Bandh to protest against the rape of a minor girl by three young men who happened to be Muslims, the Gujarat Government led by Narendra Modi arrested the VHP activists and did everything to foil the Bandh.
Thus the “leftists” are killing each other in “Lalgarh” whereas the “rightists” are arresting each other in Surat! And is Buddha smiling? But not ofcourse Buddhadev Bhattacharya;take a look at Manmohan Singh; or even Mamta! They aregrinning and busy demolishing the left and posing as the allies of the poor peasants!Strange are the changes bourgeois elections can bring about within a short period. The centrist party that was struggling against the onslaught of the left and the right, leapfrogged into the seat of power. Symbolically, Tatas may nurture their Nano in either West Bengal or Gujarat but their Macro (profits) grows in the cow-belt. The Big Bourgeoisie of India has obviously chosen the Congress to bat for them.
When the Indian big bourgeois and their loyal agent Congress and its allies like Trinumul are consolidating their positions in the country, it is really a tragedy that the left forces are in such disarray. Instead of alleviating the sufferings of the Adivasis of Lalgarh, the Maoist have only aggravated their agony and the shockingly, it is the CPI (M) which is responsible for their suffering in the first place. In the confusion of colors at Lalgarh, will the people find the true shade of red?
