The Ideological Factor
At the lower levels, the ideological factor of Maoism is clearly missing. The foot soldiers are just instruments of violence and part of the extortion industry. The lower level leaders are generally people with criminal records. Such people are selected as leaders by the top Maoist leadership because of their penchant for violence and their ability to create terror. This is out of design – reminiscent of Mao’s revolution. Mao too had collaborated with bandit leaders, when he made his ‘Red Base’ in South Hunan. He was asked by his Soviet masters to use the bandits and then eliminate them.
Indoctrination is certainly the key ingredient, and the ideological factor becomes more and more pronounced as one goes up the Maoist hierarchy. Ideologically, the Central Committee members are most focused and committed. Even more committed and dangerous are the benefactors and protagonists of the Maoists residing in the urban areas, enjoying the respectability of intellectuals, media personalities, lawyers, doctors, social activists and NGOs. Most of them are on the payroll of the Maoists. They are part of the Maoist agenda to destabilize India in every possible manner. Their respectability is their main weapon. It is for this reason that the same people take up causes ranging from Kashmir to Northeast, to Narmada project, to Singur. In Bihar, it is evident that wherever the Maoists hit a social and economic roadblock, they have bypassed and moved ahead to another area to create and exploit every imaginable fissure that exists in any society, any country or for that reason in any family. The reasons could be both – ‘lack of resources’ or ‘abundance of resources’. Such roadblocks that this author visited had only one attribute and that was the ability to match the armed power of the Maoists unitedly.
Even more committed and dangerous are the benefactors and protagonists of the Maoists residing in the urban areas, enjoying the respectability of intellectuals, media personalities, lawyers, doctors, social activists and NGOs.
Some of Maoists facilitators also imposed themselves on the latest anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazaare. Mao too considered himself basically an intellectual. In a letter to a friend in 1920 he remarked: “I think labourers in China do not really suffer poor physical conditions. Only scholar suffers.”
The authorities in Bihar and Jharkhand that this author interacted with were convinced that the Maoist infiltration is in other political parties as well. It has been the wont of the ultra-leftists to join hands with other groups in dislodging the dispensation, only to abandon them later. Nepal is the latest example. In the 1920s and 1930s, there were many CCP members, who joined the Nationalist Party and remained in it as a communist mole on Moscow’s directions. Similarly, there are elements within various political parties, who are known to be directly or indirectly furthering the cause of the Maoists.
The anti-India agenda of the Maoists was very clear, when some students of a university in Delhi celebrated the killing of 70 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh. It speaks of their level of indoctrination. Some of these elements will join bureaucracy and judiciary. Some of them will become politicians. Some of them failing in every endeavour will be thrust with the image of intellectuals and given international awards. These are the people who will lead candle marches when their activists are unmasked and arrested on charges of sedition. They will refuse to join any such march when passenger trains are attacked or security forces are killed by the Maoists. They all will subvert the Indian system and India’s territorial integrity. If not they, then who are enemies of India?
The infiltration of the Maoists in urban areas is formidable, not in terms of armed threat for now, but definitely in terms of disproportionate influence the so called intellectual cadres wield in the media and over the policy-making apparatus at the national level.
In Bihar, it is evident that wherever the Maoists hit a social and economic roadblock, they have bypassed and moved ahead to another area to create and exploit every imaginable fissure that exists in any society, any country or for that reason in any family.
In Jharkhand, the security forces authorities by timely intervention have been able to drive fear of law in to some academics, who were on the verge of being snared by the Maoists for monetary considerations.
Mao had said that the success of revolution is predicated 30 percent on arms strength and 70 percent on propaganda. The Maoists have been using the latter exceedingly well. The propaganda machinery of the Maoists comprises individuals, who are enjoying urban luxuries in the name of liberalism and intellectualism. These are the people who have not allowed Maoism to die in India. They have fantastic ability to reinvent themselves. They are part of an international network. The presence of some citizens of European Union countries during the trial of a social activist allegedly having links with Maoists in Chhattisgarh High Court is a stark indicator.
The Maoists carry out attacks by overwhelming the targets and that too, only when success is certain. When forced to go on defence, they are not averse to using children and women as shield. Any casualties of women and children give enormous propaganda ammunition to the national and international supporters of the Maoists thriving in the garb of human rights activists.
The international benefactors of the Maoists have no qualms about the medieval punishments meted out by the Jan Adalats of the Maoists. The authorities in Jharkhand and Bihar are exercised over the international network of the Maoists, especially CCOMPOSA i.e. Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organization of South Asia.
The CCOMPOSA in a recent meet held secretly in March 2011 in India, adopted a political resolution: “This conference is being held when the Indian new democratic revolution continues to confront the serious challenge of ‘Operation Green Hunt’ launched by the Indian State. While the initial victories in beating ‘this war on the people’, politically as well as militarily gives better conditions to revolutionaries, the gravity of challenges they face remains. The revolution in Nepal is at crossroads…”
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Further the CCOMPOSA resolution states: “Seize power where it is possible, develop ongoing war to higher levels, prepare and initiate ‘Peoples War’ where parties exist and buildup parties where they don’t…”
The ideological challenge posed by the Maoists is too sophisticated and its international dimensions are far to complex for the common man, and to an extent for the policy makers, to comprehend. The Maoists closely monitor India’s posturing with regard to various countries and international issues. The role of some of the church organizations in this regard is also suspect. Never have the Maoists targeted the interests of the church.
Given the international character of the Maoists, it will not be easy for the Indian state to crush the ideologues and without crushing them Maoism will remain a threat in being.
On the Indian stand on Libya, the CCOMPOSA resolution says: “… the compradore Indian government, instead of standing against the imperial attempts of interference in the going war in Libya, by firmly opposing the ‘Resolution’ play a role of cunning fox, abstaining in the voting…”
Given the international character of the Maoists, it will not be easy for the Indian state to crush the ideologues and without crushing them Maoism will remain a threat in being.
During this author’s visit to Gaya, the officials indicated that on the eve of Independence Day last year, the Maoists had issued a diktat that black flags will be hoisted in all schools instead of the Tricolour. One girl student was incensed enough to gather the gumption to pull down the black flag and hoist the Tricolour. She and her family have since been forced to leave the village. Does this kind of threat from the Maoists does not construe an inimical act against the nation? Are Maoists not anti-nationals?
Some observers in Jharkhand and Bihar are convinced that the CPI (ML) and at some level the CPI (M) are leverages controlled by the same external powers, who control the Maoists. They by design are made to operate at different levels. The CPI (M) is the parliamentary face, CPI (ML) the semi-parliamentary leverage, and Maoists, the revolutionary tools. In Bihar, CPI (ML) cadres double up as armed cadre of the Maoists during night and flag-bearing political activists of CPI (ML) during day.
In the ongoing panchayat elections in Bihar, the CPI (ML) candidates are being actively supported by the Maoist cadres even in places where the Maoists have issued poll boycott call. At places, the Maoists have held ‘Jan Adalats’ to intimidate and mobilize votes in favour of CPI (ML) candidates.
“¦the Maoist violence is not a mere question of casualties and violent incidents. It is about terror, which is as ugly and vicious as the terror industry of Taliban.
This multi-organ, multi-level and multi-thrust approach by the international benefactors of the Maoists ensures the survivability of the movement in all scenarios and against all odds. These different organs are made to believe that they are independent. The benefactors are not even averse to their infighting and internecine war, but at the critical time, they are prodded rather ordered to come together, something that is being done by China in Nepal. Moscow did the same while orchestrating the communist revolution in China.
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