tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60336862923866417342024-03-13T14:00:25.553-07:00Maoist movementin IndiaMaoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-38867484972395113762008-01-07T11:01:00.001-08:002008-01-07T11:02:56.199-08:00Vidarbha agrarian crisis far from solution<table><tbody><tr><td></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></td></tr><tr><td class="stoeymatter" width="100%" valign="top" align="right"></p><p> </p><p>INDIA GROWING ..........................................</p><table width="100%" border="0"><tbody><tr><td class="stoeymatter" id="run1" style="HEIGHT: 18px" valign="top" width="100%"><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">On going Vidarbha agrarian crisis has hit hard third year in row when 1211 distressed farmers committed suicides as per "Farmer suicide dairy” of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS)" which has released graphic of month wise and district wise farm suicides listed by the VJAS, activist group keeping track of farmers suicides since 1999. <?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr><tr><td class="stoeymatter" valign="top"><p id="run2" align="justify"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">In spite of a major new initiative from the Union Government by launching the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) which aims at increasing the production of rice by 10 million tonnes (MT), of wheat by 8 MT, and of pulses by 2 MT during the 11th Five Year Plan with an envisaged outlay of Rs. 4, 882.48 crore.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">And another major intervention in the agriculture sector is the introduction of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) envisaging an outlay of Rs. 25,000 crore over the 11th Five Year Plan. This scheme for Additional Central Assistance to the States is designed to boost public investment in a whole range of activities relating to agriculture and allied sectors based on agro-climatic District Agriculture Plans.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Nothing has become operational in suicide prone six district of Vidarbha more over Government totally failed to provide any protection to million of dying farmers on credit and food security front resulting more farm suicides than year 2006, said VJAS president Kishor Tiwari.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The toll claims of Indian Government that Agricultural Extension has been strengthened and Agricultural Technology Management Agencies (ATMAs) have been set up in 544 districts is not even seen on the paper in Vidarbha region, Tiwari added.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">As most of the political parties are doing crocodiles cry over the insult of cotton farmer but they are not talking about the solution to redress the hardship of Vidarbha farmers as presently most of the farmers who are committing suicides are the victim of poverty and hunger resulted after the long accumulation of economic collapse in region due to on going agrarian crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#333333;">Tiwari said they are demanding urgent steps to provide food security and health care facilities to these dying farmers before making arguments over farm suicides being agrarian or non agrarian.<span> </span>“Now time has come to give complete loan waiver and price protection on all agriculture produce from free trade in WTO era to Vidarbha''s dying farmers”, he added.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><span> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Reacting to the reports of change guards in Maharashtra, VJAS termed it as too late to address the crisis as it's time now to change policies not the leadership. According to Kishore restoration civil and social administration is need of the hour to stop this Vidarbha farmers mass genocide.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-FAMILY: Arial">According to VJAS </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">"Farmer suicide dairy “<span style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51)"> largest number of 332 farmers committed suicide in Yavatmal district during last year, while it was followed by 210 in Amaravati and 162 in Washim districts. While 112 farmer suicides were recorded during December in Vidarbha, highest number of 113 suicides was recorded during March and September months, respectively.</span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></td></tr></tr>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-48362061338724138802008-01-07T10:56:00.000-08:002008-01-07T10:58:52.809-08:00Prisoners riot in northern India<div class="mxb"><div class="sh">Indian Prisons are same as Guantanamo Bays Abu Garib Prison by its Nature...</div><div class="sh"> </div><div class="sh">MMI</div></div></td></tr><tr><td width="416" valign="top"><span style="font-size:85%;"><!-- S BO --><!-- S IBYL --></span><div class="mvb"><span style="font-size:85%;"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="416" border="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="bottom"><div class="mvb"><span class="byd"></span> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><img height="1" alt="" hspace="0" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/999999.gif" width="416" border="0" /><br /></span></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="203" align="right" border="0"><tbody><tr><td><div><img height="152" alt="Rioting prisoners in Jalandhar" hspace="0" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44339000/jpg/_44339572_203fire-ap.jpg" width="203" border="0" /> <div class="cap">A prisoner adds fuel to the flames</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><!-- E IIMA --><!-- S SF --><b>Hundreds of prisoners have rioted for several hours in the main jail in India's northern city of Jalandhar, in Punjab state.</b> </span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Officials said the prisoners were protesting against the alleged high-handedness of the staff. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Around 1,500 prisoners went on the rampage, smashing windows, doors and furniture. They also set fire to the hospital and kitchen. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Police said the protesters also threw stones at prison officials. <!-- E SF --></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><b>'Situation brewing'</b> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">One prisoner was injured and the police had to use tear gas and baton-charges to bring the situation under control. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">The rioting broke out on Monday morning soon after the prisoners began a hunger strike demanding immediate action against the jail authorities, accusing some of them of mistreating prisoners. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"The situation was brewing up for a few days. The prisoners had a number of complaints including lack of proper food and medicine," a senior policeman, Arpit Shukla told the BBC. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Shukla said the superintendent of the jail had been suspended. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">One Sikh prisoner, he said, had accused a jail officer of pulling out some of his hair. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Police said the situation had been brought under control and the prisoners had gone back to their cells. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Mr Shukla said there were reports that some prisoners had attempted to take advantage of the melee to try to get away. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"Jallandhar prison is one of the most secure prisons so nobody was able to escape," Mr Shukla said. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">A detailed investigation into the incident has already been ordered. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">It comes after nearly 300 communist rebels and their supporters escaped from a prison in the central state of Chhattisgarh in an armed jailbreak less than a month ago. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">India's jails are overcrowded. The excruciatingly slow pace of justice is often blamed for this, as thousands of people are kept behind bars awaiting trials.<!-- E BO --> </span></p></td></tr>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-67395808239121245252008-01-07T10:55:00.000-08:002008-01-07T10:56:26.831-08:00Dozens injured in anti-Jindal violence in Chhattisgarh<h1 class="title">Raipur : Heavy police deployment has been made Sunday in tension-hit rural areas of Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district following Saturday's clash between the police and people during a public hearing for Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL).</h1><div class="node"><div class="content"><p>At least 50 people, including 15 policemen, were injured Saturday when a crowd of over 1,000 people, mainly poor farmers, turned violent during the public hearing for JSPL at Khamaria village, 275 km northeast of capital Raipur.</p><p>The people were enraged when the JSPL officials in the presence of the police and district administration officials asked the people to hand over their lands to the company for coal mining in order to feed its power plant. JSPL has 1,000 mw coal-fired power plant at Tamnar in the same district.</p><p>"The crowd turned violent after hearing the JSPL proposal and began pelting stones at the police," R.P. Sai, Additional Superintendent of police, told reporters Sunday here.</p><p>"Dozens of farmers and 15 policemen have been injured in the clash. Police presence has been boosted after the clash in Tamnar areas and also in the nearby villages from where the farmers came in to attend the public hearing," Sai said.</p><p>Local police officials said at least 50 farmers were injured in police baton charge and admitted to a hospital at Tamnar. Eight of them were said to be in critical condition.</p><p>A.K. Mukherjee, JSPL's executive director, Sunday said, "The company is committed to welfare, development, employment generation and civil infrastructure build up of not only the coal-rich villages but also the entire Raigarh district."</p><p>As a retaliation to Saturday's police baton charge, farmers of a large rural stretch of Raigarh district have blocked road traffic at several places in the district since Sunday morning.</p></div></div>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-82673425826749811472008-01-07T10:43:00.001-08:002008-01-07T10:43:48.574-08:00Phani is Virasam secretary<strong><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><br /></span></strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:78%;color:#808080;">Monday January 7 2008 08:45 IST</span> <p><p align="left"><a style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.shaadi.com/ptnr.php?ptnr=bx6bq" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;color:#d50600;"><b></b></span></a></p><small><span style="font-family:Verdana;">GUNTUR: Phani was elected State secretary of Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Virasam) at the 21st State conference of Virasam here on Sunday.<br /><br />Those elected to the new executive body are: Chenchaiah, CSR Prasad, M Venugopal, Nagaraju, G Kalyanarao, Ravikumar, Ratnamala, Sharif, P Kotaiah, Varalakshmi, Khasim, Syamrao, Chnnaiah and Ujjwal.<br /><br />Chalasani Prasad and Vara Vara Rao were nominated as permanent invitees.<br /><br />The conference sought lifting of ban on People’s March magazine of Kerala and immediate release of its editor Govindan Kutty, extended support to Goans who are agitating against economic zones, expressed solidarity with Taslima Nasreen, demanded due share to local people in the natural gas found in the Krishna-Godavari basin and condemned attacks on churches and Christians in Orissa.</span></small> <p></p>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-35604514777999285872008-01-07T10:38:00.000-08:002008-01-07T10:41:49.822-08:00Woman Maoist leader arrested in Jharkhand<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><strong>Y It is a Women,It is a Maoist.....Peoples Star.Party know how to take rescue her from the false system </strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><strong>MMI</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">Ranchi, Jan 7 - A top woman Maoist leader has been arrested from the Garwah district of Jharkhand, police said Monday.</span><br /><p></p><span style="font-family:arial;">Acting on a tip off Sunday night, police arrested Vineeta alias Simppi, a zonal commander of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), from Bardari village of Garwah district, about 140 km from Ranchi.</span><br /><p></p><span style="font-family:arial;">Police said she had masterminded more than a dozen Maoist attacks in Jharkhand. She is accused of attacking a Home Guard training centre in Giridih district in 2006 and looting around 200 police rifles.</span><br /><p></p><span style="font-family:arial;">'Vineeta had joined the CPI-Maoist group 15 years ago. She was active in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh,' said a police official.</span><br /><p></p><span style="font-family:arial;">She was lately involved in spreading Maoist propaganda. She used to show villagers CDs with images of police torturing innocent people in the name of anti-Maoist operations.</span><br /><p></p><span style="font-family:arial;">According to a police official, Vineeta is an expert in handling sophisticated weapons and making landmines.</span><br /><p></p><span style="font-family:arial;">Maoist rebels are active in 18 of the 24 districts of the state. Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in Maoist related violence in the state in the last seven years.A</span>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-42893069994510655152008-01-03T09:56:00.000-08:002008-01-03T09:58:16.591-08:00Indian court orders 'arrest without bail' of Dutch activists<div class="contentadress"> <small class="contentadress"> From Indymedia<br />See the Face of Indian State....<br /><br />AP<br /></small> </div> <blockquote class="contentabstract"><div class="contentmedia"> <!-- media --> <p class="mediaimage"> <!-- link included --> <a href="http://www.indymedia.org/images/2007/12/897825.jpg"> <img src="http://www.indymedia.org/images/2007/12/897825.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0" height="68" hspace="8" vspace="4" width="120" /></a> <span class="mediatitle"> <br /> </span> </p> <br /> </div> A court in Bangalore has issued an order for the 'arrest without the possibility of bail' of seven campaigners over their websites postings about labour conditions of an Indian supplier of fashion label G-Star. The activists are from the <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/">Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC)</a> and the <a href="http://www.indianet.nl/english.html">India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN)</a>; the director of their Netherlands based ISP, <a href="http://www.antenna.nl/indexeng.html">Antenna</a>, is included.<br /><br />The case could have <a href="https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387194.html#cybercrime">implications for activists posting anything on the web</a>, with the court using the Convention on Cyber Crime to call for extradition. It all happens with the backdrop of the continuing campaign about labour conditions and particularly the huge number of child workers in India coming up <a href="https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387194.html#freetrade">against the religion of 'free trade'</a>.<br /><br /><p>The case has been <a href="https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/387194.html#background">running for some time now</a>. As the legal threats get worse the campaign are asking for solidarity. As G-Star is the only remaining buyer from the jeans manufacturer at which the CCC and ICN have highlighted the labour rights violations they are asking people to make demands of them <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/07-12-04.htm">listing things you can do [cleanclothes.org]</a>. In the UK No Sweat! have called <a href="http://www.nosweat.org.uk/node/671">a picket of G-star [nosweat.org]</a> focusing on their Covent Garden store. There are lots of outlets around <a href="http://storelocator.g-star.com/">on their store locator [g-star.com]</a>.</p></blockquote> <h2><a name="background">Background</a></h2><p>In 2006 the CCC and ICN launched a campaign to draw attention to severe labour rights violations at Indian jeans manufacturer Fibres and Fabrics International and its subsidiary Jeans Knit Pvt Ltd (FFI/JKPL). The campaign highlighted the workers own words. At the time FFI/JKPL were producing jeans for companies including G-Star, Armani, RaRe, Guess, Gap and Mexx and had a gagging order of local labour rights organizations that were informed about labour rights violations at the factory by workers in 2005. To date FFI/JKPL has refused to engage with the local labour groups to resolve the outstanding labour issues. For doing so while there was a gagging order the activists were accused of 'cyber crime', 'acts of racist and xenophobic nature' and 'criminal defamation' by the Indian jeans manufacturer Fibres and Fabrics International and its subsidiary Jeans Knit Pvt Ltd (FFI/JKPL). <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/news/07-09-07.htm">News 07 Sep 07 [cleanclothes.org]</a></p><p>As they did not travel to India in person for the first hearing of the case (no doubt to be kept in the country while the trial proceeded, something that could take years) the court ruled on Saturday that international warrants will be issued for their arrest.<a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/07-12-03.htm">News 03 Dec 07 [cleanclothes.org]</a></p><h2><a name="cybercrime">Free Speech a Cyber Crime?</a></h2><p>The potential restriction on free speech could have immense implications for all activists. Extradition is requested using the Convention on Cyber Crime, and its Additional Protocol.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/ftp/FFI_court_order.pdf">Original court order of June 14th 2007 [cleanclothes.org][pdf]</a> referred to:</p>'The continuous publication and hosting of the false defamatory material on the website amounts to cyber crime and a cyberspace libel...' 'the representation of their alleged theories and ideas advocates and promotes hatred, discrimination and violence against the complainant and the country based on national origin thus being xenophobic in nature...' 'publish material to insult the country and the complainant publicly through a computer system on grounds of national origin...' 'All the accused... commission of the cyber crime of publication of xenophobic material'.<p>This according to the Indian court makes potentially 'criminal defamation' of telling Indian workers own stories from <a href="http://www.schonekleren.nl/ftp/gatw_interview1.pdf">interviews [schonekleren.nl][pdf]</a> and publicising the results of a fact finding mission extraditable under the Additional Protocol.</p><p>In 2001 when the Council of Europe drew up the Convention they explicitly left out integration with the European Convention on Human Rights. At the time activists were highlighting it could be used to restrict freedom of speech, now it seems they may have been right. Two years later as the Council drafted the Additional Protocol to target racism and xenophobia on the internet again they seemed to ignore differences of freedom of expression that exist around the world.</p><p>There is a handbook on the <a href="http://www.cyber-rights.org/cybercrime/coe_handbook_crcl.pdf">Convention on Cyber Crime for activists [cyber-rights.org][pdf]</a></p><h2><a name="freetrade">Campaigners pawns in global free trade power game</a></h2><p>The escalation of this case times itself with the growing push by Indian Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath, to increase foreign trade and stop international campaigns particularly about child labour in India. Nath has been removing restrictions on trade, and claims that governments supporting NGOs that are campaigning about working conditions in his country are <a href="http://www.depers.nl/buitenland/119410/India-dreigt-met-handelsboycot.html%20">'disguised protectionism' [depers.nl][dutch]</a></p><p>Who knows maybe the tactics are working? On Friday 30th November, the EU and India released their <a href="http://www.ue2007.pt/UE/vEN/Noticias_Documentos/20071130INDIAStatement.htm">Joint Statement of the 8th India-EU Summit [ue2007.pt]</a>. It spends much time praising growth in 'multilateral trade', and while mentioning efforts on climate change they are also 'recognising the importance of strengthening transportation links ... the growing importance of India-EU civil aviation'. There is no explicit mention of working conditions and child labour, just that they have a 'strengthening of the EU-India dialogue and cooperation on employment and social policy on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding' with its visits and seminars.</p><p>India's government, its manufacturers, and the companies they supply are however under immense pressure from non-governmental and grassroots groups about the use of child labour. The country has some of the highest number of children under 15 working, sometimes in terrible conditions. The most recent case to highlight this was the <a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2200590,00.html">Observer's exposure of a factory producing for GAP kids [guardian.co.uk]</a>, 'child workers as young as 10 found working in conditions close to slavery... the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings.' GAP has been a long target of campaigns about sweatshops and labour, so this time GAP moved quickly at this exposure.</p><p>This is not the first time Kamal Nath has played the free trade card to try and remove some external pressure on standards within the country. In 1994 as Minister for the Environment he <a href="http://65.108.190.76/publicaciones/LavanyaGETS.rtf">pushed for the de-linking of environmental standards from trade [65.108.190.76][rtf]</a>. Also while he was Environment minister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamal_Nath">a commercial venture of his damaged the environment [wikipedia.org]</a> so much so he was later fined Rs 1.000.000 by the High Court</p>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-74630107255456483882008-01-03T09:52:00.000-08:002008-01-03T09:53:48.337-08:00Zapatistas smell war in the air of Chiapas<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="story-title" width="100%"><h2><br /></h2></td> <td class="story-title" align="right" nowrap="nowrap" width="5%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="story-box" colspan="2"> <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><td class="story-information" width="100%"> Wednesday, January 02 2008 @ 05:48 PM PST<br /> Contributed by: <a class="storybyline" href="http://www.infoshop.org/inews/users.php?mode=profile&uid=54">Collin Sick</a><br /> Views: 193 </td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://www.infoshop.org/inews/index.php?topic=67" rel="category tag"><img src="http://www.infoshop.org/inews/images/topics/inews_north_america.gif" alt="North America" title="North America" align="right" border="0" /></a>Nativity scenes are plentiful in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a colonial city in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. But the one that greets visitors at the entrance to the TierrAdentro cultural centre has a local twist: figurines on donkeys wear miniature ski masks and carry wooden guns. It is high season for "Zapatourism", the industry of international travellers that has sprung up around the indigenous uprising here, and TierrAdentro is ground zero.<br /><br />Commentary By Naomi Klein<br /><br /><br />SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS–Nativity scenes are plentiful in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a colonial city in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. But the one that greets visitors at the entrance to the TierrAdentro cultural centre has a local twist: figurines on donkeys wear miniature ski masks and carry wooden guns.<br /><br />It is high season for "Zapatourism", the industry of international travellers that has sprung up around the indigenous uprising here, and TierrAdentro is ground zero. Zapatista-made weavings, posters, and jewellery are selling briskly. In the courtyard restaurant, where the mood at 10 p.m. is festive verging on fuzzy, college students drink Sol beer. A young man holds up a photograph of Subcomandante Marcos, as always in mask with pipe, and kisses it. His friends snap yet another picture of this most documented of movements.<br /><br />I am taken through the revellers to a room in the back of the centre, closed to the public. The sombre mood here seems a world away. Ernesto Ledesma Arronte, a 40-year-old ponytailed researcher, is hunched over military maps and human-rights incident reports. "Did you understand what Marcos said?" he asks me. "It was very strong. He hasn't said anything like that in many years."<br /><br />Arronte is referring to a speech Marcos made the night before at a conference outside San Cristóbal. The speech was titled "Feeling Red: The Calendar and the Geography of War". Because it was Marcos, it was poetic and slightly elliptical. But to Arronte's ears, it was a code-red alert. "Those of us who have made war know how to recognize the paths by which it is prepared and brought near," Marcos said. "The signs of war on the horizon are clear. War, like fear, also has a smell. And now we are starting to breathe its fetid odour in our lands."<br /><br />Marcos's assessment supports what Arronte and his fellow researchers at the Centre of Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations have been tracking with their maps and charts. On the 56 permanent military bases that the Mexican state runs on indigenous land in Chiapas, there has been a marked increase in activity. Weapons and equipment are being dramatically upgraded, new battalions are moving in, including special forces–all signs of escalation.<br /><br />As the Zapatistas became a global symbol for a new model of resistance, it was possible to forget that the war in Chiapas never actually ended. For his part, Marcos–despite his clandestine identity–has been playing a defiantly open role in Mexican politics, most notably during the fiercely contested 2006 presidential elections. Rather than endorsing the centre-left candidate, Andrés Manuel LÓpez Obrador, he spearheaded a parallel "Other Campaign", holding rallies that called attention to issues ignored by the major candidates.<br /><br />In this period, Marcos's role as military leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) seemed to fade into the background. He was Delegate Zero–the anticandidate. Last night, Marcos announced that the conference would be his last such appearance for some time. "Look, the EZLN is an army," he reminded his audience, and he is its "military chief".<br /><br />That army faces a grave new threat–one that cuts to the heart of the Zapatistas' struggle. During the 1994 uprising, the EZLN claimed large stretches of land and collectivized them–its most tangible victory. In the San Andrés Accords, the right to territory was recognized, but the Mexican government has refused to fully ratify the accords. After failing to enshrine these rights, the Zapatistas decided to turn them into facts on the ground. They formed their own government structures–called good-government councils–and stepped up the building of autonomous schools and clinics. As the Zapatistas expand their role as the de facto government in large areas of Chiapas, the federal and state governments' determination to undermine them is intensifying.<br /><br />"Now," Arronte says, "they have their method." The method is to use the deep desire for land among all peasants in Chiapas against the Zapatistas. Arronte's organization has documented that, in just one region, the government has spent approximately $16 million expropriating land and giving it to many families linked to the notoriously corrupt Institutional Revolutionary Party. Often, the land is already occupied by Zapatista families. Most ominously, many of the new "owners" are linked to thuggish paramilitary groups, which are trying to force the Zapatistas from the newly titled land.<br /><br />Since September, there has been a marked escalation of violence: shots fired into the air, brutal beatings, Zapatista families reporting being threatened with death, rape, and dismemberment. Soon, the soldiers in their barracks may well have the excuse they need to descend: restoring "peace" among feuding indigenous groups. For months the Zapatistas have been resisting violence and trying to expose these provocations. But by choosing not to line up behind Obrador in the 2006 election, the movement made powerful enemies. And now, says Marcos, their calls for help are being met with a deafening silence.<br /><br />Exactly 10 years ago, on December 22, 1997, the Acteal massacre took place. As part of the anti-Zapatista campaign, a paramilitary gang opened fire in a small church in the village of Acteal, killing 45 indigenous people, 16 of them children and adolescents. Some bodies were hacked with machetes. The state police heard the gunfire and did nothing. For weeks now, Mexico's newspapers have been filled with articles marking the tragic 10-year anniversary of the massacre.<br /><br />In Chiapas, however, many people point out that conditions today feel eerily familiar: the paramilitaries, the rising tensions, the mysterious activities of the soldiers, the renewed isolation from the rest of the country. And they have a plea to those who supported them in the past: don't just look back. Look forward, and prevent another Acteal massacre before it happens.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-87609090655959776682008-01-03T09:49:00.000-08:002008-01-03T09:50:23.473-08:00Armed might won't defeat the Naxals<p><span style="font-size:180%;">P</span>rime Minister Manmohan Singh's <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(117, 117, 119);"></span> clarion call on December 20 at the high level conference to discuss internal security to crush the Naxalites, now up in arms in several states, brought to mind a line from Zafar Gorakhpuri's popular qawwali featured in the 1972 movie <i>Putli Bai</i>. It runs: "<i>Inke kalai dekho tho chudiyan uthane ke kabhil nahi, phir bhi talwar uthane ki dhamki</i>�" (See their waist and they look incapable of lifting a bangle, but still the threat is to pick up a sword).</p><p>I am not alluding to the weight of the PM's kada but to the worn out sinews of the state that are hardly capable of quelling any armed assault upon it let alone assuaging the causes that force normally compliant people to resort to violence. Having traveled several times through the 'affected' areas in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra I have little hesitation in testifying that the insurgency has much popular support. The police, forest and excise departments are truly hated and this is just about all the government the common people encounter.</p><p>The prime minister has a typical bureaucratic response to this major crisis now gripping the adivasi homelands in six states. The government will now raise 25 more battalions of armed police, mostly for the Central Reserve Police Force. It is unfortunate that the prime minister sees this as a law and order problem. One would have thought Manmohan Singh was more intelligent than that because more coercion by the state will only beget more against it by the people. It seems that, let alone intelligence, even common sense and good sense are kept out of that corner of South Block which houses the Prime Minister's Office?</p><p>It seems that the prime minister threat of more forces found favorable response with all the participants of the conference which included the Congress, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Bharatiya Janata Party chief ministers. In his closing remarks, Dr Singh said conferences of this nature send a strong message that the "political leadership of the country can rise above our political and party affiliations when it comes to facing national challenges, particularly those concerning internal security." It seemed that the entire national political spectrum was not just speaking but thinking as one. Groupthink is a serious psychological disorder and means that when all are thinking alike nobody is really thinking. Signs of it among the nation's top leaders are an ominous portent of things to come.</p><p>The spread of Naxalism is an indication of the sense of desperation and alienation that is sweeping over of large sections of our nation who have been not only systematically marginalised but cruelly exploited and dispossessed in their last homelands. The late Professor Nihar Ranjan Ray, one of our most distinguished historians, described the central Indian adivasis as "the original autochthonous people of India" meaning that their presence in India pre-dated the Dravidians, the Aryans and whoever else settled in this country. The anthropologist Dr Verrier Elwin states this more emphatically when he wrote: "These are the real swadeshi products of India, in whose presence all others are foreign. These are ancient people with moral rights and claims thousands of years old. They were here first and should come first in our regard." </p><p>Unfortunately like indigenous people all over the world, the India's adivasis too have been savaged and ravaged by later people claiming to be more 'civilised'.</p><p>In the decades after Independence the exploitation has only become more rampant. The adivasi homelands are rich in natural resources and the new modernising and industrialising India needs these resources. Today all the mineral resources except oil that India boasts off are to be found only in these areas and the state has not been lax in exploiting them. The only problem is that the people whose homelands were ravaged to extract nature's bounty got little or nothing of it. Even the meager royalties the states receive are mostly expended by the authorities on themselves as salaries have now become the biggest single expenditure of the Indian states. At last count the total wage bill of India's government is a monstrous Rs193,000 crore or about 5.6 percent of the Gross National Product.</p><p>We all now know very well that big government in the absence of a responsive nervous system actually means little government, and whatever little interaction the people at the bottom have with the state is usually a none too happy one. In the vast central Indian highlands the occasional visit of an official invariably means extraction by coercion of what little the poor people have. It doesn't just end with a chicken or a goat or a bottle of <em>mahua </em>(the local brew), it often includes all these and the modesties of the womenfolk. Most tribal villages and settlements have no access to schools and medical care. Very few are connected with all weather roads. Perish the thought of electricity though all the coal and most of the hydel projects to generate electricity are in the tribal regions. The forests have been pillaged and the virgin forests thick with giant teak and sal trees are things of the past.</p><p>In Orissa over 72 percent of all adivasi's live well below the poverty line. At the national level 45.86 percent of all adivasis live below the poverty line. Incidentally the official Indian poverty line is a nothing more than a starvation line, which means that almost half of India's original inhabitants go to bed every night starving. Several anthropometric studies have revealed that successive generations of adivasi's are actually becoming smaller unlike all other people in India who benefit from better and increasingly nutritious diets. </p><p>What little the Indian state apportions to the welfare and development of indigenous people gets absorbed in the porous layers of our government. A typical instance of this is in the tribal majority KBK (Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput) districts of Orissa where over Rs 2,000 crore cumulatively spent ostensibly on social welfare and rural development schemes during the past three years has just vanished leaving little or no evidence of having done any of the intended recipients any good. The people are not having any more of it and have taken to coercing the state, dishing out to it what its minions have been doing for ages.</p><p>The armed police first went into Bastar, now in Chhattisgarh in 1966. The Gond people in Bastar revolted against the corrupt and exploitative ways of the Madhya Pradesh Congress government of D P Mishra. Pandit D P Mishra, a Sanskrit scholar of some repute, had few qualms in unleashing the police on the adivasis who congregated in Jagdalpur to pay the customary Dussera homage to their Raja, Pravinchandra Bhanjdeo. Not only did the MP police kill scores of adivasis, but they also shot down the Raja in cold blood. </p><p>Soon after this incident central forces were deployed in Bastar and one got a first hand look at the havoc they wrought. The military only repeated what they had done in the Naga Hills. In those days the armed forces used Lee Enfield .303 rifles and the adivasis used bows and arrows and the occasional muzzle loading gun. With the advent of the AK-47 capable of delivering over 650 rounds per minute combined with an intimate knowledge of the terrain, the Naxalites, now mostly adivasi volunteers, are not as disadvantaged as before. In the recent months the police have been at the receiving end and the prime minister is a worried man.</p><p>During my last visit to Bastar, I drove down from Narayangarh to Chota Dongar, deep in the jungles. The only sign of the state here were the pockmarked buildings that once housed government offices. At the village haat (bazaar) at Chota Dongar, as we stood watching cockfights a Naxal patrol quietly came along and took <i>talashi</i> (search) of our vehicle. They had a few good laughs over the cartons of mineral water we were carrying but refused to pose for pictures. </p><p>Two days prior to this the vehicle was stopped and searched in Andhra Pradesh's Warangal district by an armed police patrol. The sub-inspector leading the team was drunk, as were most of his men. The first question was whether we were carrying firearms? Then they wanted to know how much cash we were carrying? Then things got a bit hairy. They wanted to know as to how we had entered the forest area without 'permission'. One got the distinct feeling that only our facility with English and the Delhi license plates prevented an encounter. And now Dr Singh is proposing 25 more battalions of such fine fighting men to defend our democratic way of life and to uphold the Constitution?</p><p>Quite clearly the solutions lie elsewhere. There are several paradoxes that must be dealt with. The most important of these is that to provide good government in the worst of law and order environments. A better civil administration structure must come up in place of the one sent packing by the violence and by popular sanction. Instead of the state capital controlled government the instruments of government dealing with education, health, irrigation, roads and land records must be handed over to local government structures. </p><p>The police must also be made answerable to local elected officials and not be a law unto themselves. The local community must get all the royalties for the minerals extracted from their areas. We cannot have any more episodes like that in Kalinganagar where the Tata's got adivasi lands at a fraction of their market value. Tata's and others want to exploit Bastar's iron ore. They must pay the full value of this to the local community. </p><p>When Dr Singh first became prime minister, he promised that the reform of government was his number one priority. He promised us a government by the people and for the people. Instead of devoting himself to this he seems to have frittered his time schmoozing with the fat cats of the Confederation of Indian Industries and the World Economic Forum and running a government for them alone</p>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-51486394598341529312008-01-03T09:44:00.000-08:002008-01-03T09:46:15.343-08:00First anniversary of Nandigram unrest<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr style="padding-bottom: 5px;"><td style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(220, 220, 220);" colspan="2"><b><span id="lblCaption"><div class="Caption">i THINK NDTV Given a wrong Heading Actually it should be First Anniversary of Fascism<br />AP<br /><br /></div></span></b> </td> </tr> <tr style="padding-top: 5px;"> <td class="Dateline" valign="top"><br /></td> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <div class="byline"><span id="lblrepoter"><div class="Byline">Bano Haralu</div></span></div> <div class="dateline"><span id="lbldateline"><div class="Dateline">Thursday, January 3, 2008 (Nandigram)</div></span></div> <div class="bodyline"><span id="lblStory"><div class="Bodyline">It is exactly a year since the Nandigram SEZ crisis began and winds of change are cautiously blowing over the fields in Nandigram.<br /><br />For eleven long months villagers here suffered a siege within as supporters of the CPI (M) and the Trinamool Congress backed Bhumi Uched Pratirodh Committee clashed over the controversial issue of land acquisition for a petro chemical hub. The standoff worsened with the issue turning into turf war for supremacy between the two political parties.<br /><br />A year later the figure of people killed is still not known but at least 50 people have died and several are still missing. Hundreds have been injured and thousands made homeless for months with a feeling of fear and helplessness.<br /><br />That is how the people of Nandigram will remember the year gone by. And this is where the first voices of protest against acquiring land for a Special Economic Zone were heard, exactly a year ago.<br /><br />At a meeting of Kalichandrapur Panchayat, there were rumours that the Haldia Development Authority would announce a land acquisition drive.<br /><br />Villagers feared their land would be taken away by force. One of the victims in the violence that followed was Rehman's 19-year-old son, a member of the Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee.<br /><br />''My son is no longer with us and I don't want an industry. I don't require one,'' said Sheikh Fojla Rahman.<br /><br />In February, the Chief Minister announced no land would be forcibly acquired but by then the damage had been done. And in March police tried to enter Nandigram using force. 14 people were killed in firing after which Nandigram remained on the boil. The administration did nothing to restore calm.<br /><br />For both the CPM and the Trinamool Congress, the issue turned into a turf war for supremacy. Voices of protest echoed on the streets of Kolkata also in Parliament. A spate of bandhs followed, Nandigram became a national issue.<br /><br />The Calcutta High court condemned the firing and ordered a CBI probe. And in November when the CPM tried to recapture its lost base four people died in clashes.<br /><br />But the Chief Minister visited Nandigram only last week, almost a year after trouble first broke out to attend a district level conference of the CPM, where he handed out compensation to the 29 party workers, who were killed last year.<br /><br />Paramilitary forces are present in the area but the general worry is, what happens after they are gone.<br /><br />Both the CPM and the Trinamool who have lined up meetings to mark the first anniversary of the violence claim many of their supporters are still missing.<br /><br /><br />Life is desperately trying to return to normal here in Nandigram as an uneasy calm shadows the shattered peace.<br /><br />The controversial land acquisition issue was hijacked by an intense political battle for turf between the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress, crippling life for an entire year.<br /><br />It is not difficult to guess what the people here will be longing for in the New Year, peace that will last.</div></span></div> </div> <div style="padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 20px;" align="center"> <table id="Table1" style="border: 1px solid Gainsboro; background-color: rgb(236, 236, 236); width: 290px;" border="0"> <tbody><tr> <td style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-75882921140920532502008-01-03T09:43:00.000-08:002008-01-03T09:44:06.980-08:00“No withdrawal of CRPF from Nandigram”<span class="storyhead" style="font-size:130%;color:blue;"><b><br /></b></span> <p> Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Wednesday ruled out the immediate withdrawal of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from Nandigram and said it was up to the Centre to decide how long it would remain there. </p> <p> “The State government does not want immediate pulling out of the CRPF from Nandigram,” said Home Secretary P.R. Roy. The Centre would decide how long the force would stay at Nandigram, he told reporters. </p> <p> On Tuesday, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu favoured continuance of the CRPF in Nandigram despite the CPI(M)’s allegations of excesses against the Central forces. — PTI </p>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-81188875764681786582008-01-03T09:38:00.002-08:002008-01-03T09:40:23.325-08:00CPM leaders gunned down, finger at Maoists<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="articleheader"><div id="hd" name="hd"><br /></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="articleauthor"><br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="story" align="left"> <table style="width: 172px; height: 66px;" align="left" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td> <br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="articleauthor" align="left"><br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="articleauthor" align="left"><br /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="story" align="left"><b>Krishnagar/Purulia, Jan. 2: </b>Maoists shot dead two CPM leaders, in Nadia’s Chapra and Purulia’s Balarampur, within 12 hours since last night.</p> <p class="story" align="left">Ramprasad Mondal, 50, a local committee member of the CPM and a primary teacher, was cycling to school around 10.45 this morning when he ran into a gang of six, between 20 and 25 years old. </p> <p class="story" align="left">Dressed in shirts, trousers and sleeveless sweaters, the youths surrounded Mondal on a field in Madhabpur village in Chapra, about 130km from Calcutta.</p> <p class="story" align="left">Witnesses told police that two of them whipped out revolvers and shot Mondal from point-blank range in the chest and head. He died on the spot.</p> <p class="story" align="left">Mondal is the sixth CPM leader to be killed by Maoists in Nadia since June 2005. </p> <p class="story" align="left">“The murder is the handiwork of Maoists. Police movement is difficult in the area because of poor road links. The Maoists are taking advantage of that to strengthen their base in Chapra,” Nadia superintendent of police H.K. Kusumakar said. </p> <p class="story" align="left">Around 50 printed leaflets were found at the spot that warned villagers against testifying in cases pending against Maoists. “Anyone standing witness against us will meet a similar fate,” one of them read.</p> <p class="story" align="left">However, Mondal was not a witness in any such case. </p> <p class="story" align="left">Some posters also warned the villagers against hobnobbing with the police. </p> <p class="story" align="left">Local CPM legislator Samsul Alam said the rebels had earlier threatened to kill Mondal, who had been campaigning against Maoist activities</p> <p class="story" align="left">Mondal’s daughter Mohua, 20, said the family knew about the threat. “My father had not been staying out late. That is why the Maoists killed him in broad daylight,” she said.</p> <p class="story" align="left">Another band of Maoists chose the cover of darkness to kill Narayan Majhi. </p> <p class="story" align="left">The 42-year-old CPM branch committee member had gone to bed around 11 last night when 20 men in olive green fatigues barged into his house in a Balarampur village in Maoist-infested Purulia.</p> <p class="story" align="left">They tied the widower’s hands and dragged him out. The gang then shot him in the chest and ear.</p> <p class="story" align="left">“When my son shouted for help, I pleaded with them to let him go... They dragged him out and killed him,” wept Majhi’s 72-year-old mother Dhundi. </p> <p class="story" align="left">The killers left behind posters threatening to intensify Maoist movement against corruption in gram panchayats and the CPM.</p> <p class="story" align="left">“Narayan Majhi was killed by Maoists,” said Pranab Kumar Das, the additional superintendent of police.</p> <p class="story" align="left">Hours before Majhi was shot, 20 Maoists raided a house 4km away. They took away a double-barrel gun, a motorbike and a cellphone from the house of Abinash Kumar, a ration dealer at Jugidihi village. </p> <p class="story" align="left">The gang then raided two more houses before setting fire to the home of a CPM local committee member in an adjoining village.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="story" align="right" valign="top"><a href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080103/jsp/bengal/story_8737821.jsp#top"><img src="http://www.telegraphindia.com/images/top.gif" alt="Top" border="0" height="16" width="15" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-47737215553887383212008-01-03T09:38:00.001-08:002008-01-03T09:38:22.163-08:00Maoists attack police station<p align="justify"><b><span class="headline_INSIDE"><br /></span></b></p><p class="story_text" align="justify"><span class="story_text">Statesman News Service<br />Patna, Jan. 2: Stung by the daylight Maoist attack on a police team in Munger on New Year’s day yesterday, killing four retired Army jawans absorbed in police jobs on contracts, and looting their weapons, the police have launched a massive combing operation in east Bihar districts.<br />The absconding Naxalites turned merrymaking into mourning for the state government. Last year, Bihar witnessed about 200 incidents of Naxalite violence, indicating how the state police machinery was proving to be pigmy before the Maoists guerrillas. Sources said a huge police force has been engaged in the combing operation and recover weapons looted from the police. Reports said senior police officers are monitoring the combing operations in Munger and its neighbouring areas where, the police believe, the Naxalites may have taken shelter after committing the crime.<br />Witnesses said the Maoists, with the local revellers were celebrating the arrival of the New Year at Rishikund, a popular picnic spot in Munger surrounded by hills, when a police team in a jeep reached the spot to monitor law and order. On seeing the police jeep, the extremists, said to be more than 200 in number, resorted to indiscriminate firing, killing four retired jawans on the spot. The local station house officer saved his life reportedly by hiding in a bush nearby.<br />The Nitish Kumar-led government here has appointed more than 5,000 retired Army jawans on contract to tighten law and order. The government’s efforts have so far failed to bear any results, going by the number of Naxalite incidents reported in the last year. An official report said 39 people were killed in 175 Maoist-related incidents reported from 29 of the 38 districts of Bihar last year. Of the 39 killed, 22 were policemen, indicating how they have become soft targets. </span></p>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-53494480477862299022008-01-03T09:33:00.001-08:002008-01-03T09:33:57.622-08:00Release Govindan Kutty, the Editor of People's March Unconditionally<h3 class="post-title entry-title"> <a href="http://maoistresistance.blogspot.com/2008/01/release-govindan-kutty-editor-of.html"><br /></a> </h3> <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 26pt; font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Revolutionary Democratic Front </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: "Book Antiqua";">All </span></i></b> <b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: "Book Antiqua";">India</span></i></b><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: "Book Antiqua";"> Committee</span> </i></b></p> <div style="border-style: none none solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color -moz-use-text-color windowtext; border-width: medium medium 1pt; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none ; padding: 0in;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none ; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="mailto:rdfindia@gmail.com">rdfindia@gmail.com</a></span></p> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right; line-height: normal;" align="right"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Date: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> 31 December 2007</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right; line-height: normal;" align="right"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right; line-height: normal;" align="right"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Release Govindan Kutty, the Editor of <i style="">People's March</i> Unconditionally</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Withdraw False Case Fabricated on the Editor</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">On December 19th the Kerala Police, under the orders of Ernakulum Police Commissioner, raided the room of Govindan Kutty, 65, the editor and publisher of <i style="">Peoples March</i> which is not a banned publication and confiscated all his literature and computer hard disk. Govindan Kutty was arrested under the charges of spreading sedition and indulging in unlawful activities and was remanded in judicial custody by a lower court at Aluva in Kerala. He was implicated in a fabricated case under a number of clauses like section 134 A and 163B of Indian Penal Code and 13 of (1) b of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and sent to Aluva prison.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the State under the close instructions of UPA Government at the Centre resorted to this crackdown on the popular revolutionary magazine. <span style=""> </span>Govindan Kutty, according to his lawyers, was harassed and psychologically tortured for a day in the name of interrogation before being sent to judicial custody. Ever since he was arrested he was on hunger strike protesting against the trampling down of his right to freedom of speech and Freedom of Press.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">He continues his protest within the four walls of the prison demanding his unconditional release. His lawyer who met him two days ago said that his health condition was serious given his age and chronic ailments with which has been suffering. His life is in a serious threat.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The arrest of Govindan Kutty and the police crackdown on the office of the publication was an attack on the freedom of press. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">As hundreds of thousands of people from all corners of the world know, the <i style="">People's March</i> supports all revolutionary movements including the Maoist movements in </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">India</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> , </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nepal</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and elsewhere. It is a fully legal publication registered with Indian registrar of Newspapers of the Government of India with the RNI number KER ENG/2000/2051 and the postal registration number: KL/EKM/614/2007-09. The magazine has been coming out for over 7 years (since 1998) meeting all the legal requirements. The magazine has been freely available not only in bookstalls all over </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">India</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, but also in prominent libraries in </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">New Delhi</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and other major cities in </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">India</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and abroad.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The <i style="">People's March </i>publishes news reports and interviews of Maoists, both from </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">India</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and abroad like all other hundreds of magazines and newspapers in </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">India</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">.<span style=""> </span>It is <i style="">People's March</i> today which is under attack, tomorrow all other media will face the same threat if we don't raise our voice against this attack on freedom of press.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">A year ago the website of <i style="">People's March</i> was blocked by the Indian Government without assigning any reasons. When its editors started publishing the online magazine through a blog on googlepages, it was also blocked by Google in December 2007, under the pressure of Indian Government.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The arrest of the editor and the foisting of fake charges against him are nothing but an attempt of the Government of India to further stifle freedom of speech in the country. The so-called largest democracy in the world with a gigantic army, Paramilitary and police force feels threatened by a mere monthly magazine with a limited circulation of a few thousands in print. This action displays the fascist character of the Indian state and the cowardly action of the Kerala police.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Revolutionary Democratic Front appeals to all democratic and revolutionary organizations and individuals to raise their voice against the arrest of the editor of <i style="">People's March</i>, a popular independent revolutionary newspaper from </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">India</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Govindan Kutty and allow the continued publication of <i style="">People's March</i>. We hold the government entirely responsible in the face of any damage to his health or threat to his life due to hunger strike within jail.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rajkishore</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">General Secretary</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-25574186419303051232008-01-03T09:31:00.000-08:002008-01-03T09:32:54.467-08:00Maoists have cops in a web<h3 class="post-title entry-title"> <a href="http://maoistresistance.blogspot.com/2008/01/maoists-have-cops-in-web.html"><br /></a> </h3> <span style="font-family: georgia,serif;font-size:85%;" ><b>Hyderabad, Dec. 30: The cyber duel between the police and the Maoists has turned into a cat and mouse game. Every time the police gets a website or a blog closed, Maoist sympathisers set up another one and continue as before. The cyber catch-me-if-you-can hotted up last week after the police got Peoples March, the most popular pro-Maoist site, blocked through Central agencies. Its editor Govindan Kutty was arrested in Kerala.<br /><br />The website used to carry interviews with top Maoist leaders including Ganapati and spokesperson Azad. It was blocked an year ago but emerged again and was blocked last week. The Special Intelligence Branch says Peoples March and other websites act as communication link between the underground cadres and sympathisers.<br /><br />The service provider has left a message stating that the action was taken for violation of programme policies. Following this, however, Maoist sympathisers set up <a href="http://maoistmovementinindia.com/">maoistmovementinindia.com</a>. The new site carried a warning to the police to release Kutty or he would go on a hunger strike. A senior police official said, <span style="font-weight: bold;">"Maoists are using the internet to propagate their ideology. The network is big."</span> The Maoists are under pressure in the AP with the police evicting them from most of their bases. The internet offers a safe way to get the Maoist message across.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"Several Maoist sympathisers from AP are writing columns using pennames,"</span> the official said. State police suspects that Maoist leaders who are in hiding in Andhra Pradesh are frequently visiting Kerala, where most of the pro-Maoist bloggers are based. Sources pointed out that Maoist leader Raji Reddy was picked up in Kerala earlier this month. Following this, the Revolutionary People's Front complained to the Kerala government which resulted in the police announcing Raji Reddy's arrest.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pointing out to the close links, police noted that the AP Revolutionary Writers Association had condemned the arrest of Kutty of Peoples March.</span> Sources in the police said that the bloggers have close links with Maoist sympathisers and this has been detected by sniffer software. Resistance <a href="http://india.blogsot.com/">India.blogsot.com</a>, a Mao-ist blog, was hacked in August, and the role of the law enforcing agencies is suspected. Following this, the Maoist sympathisers created <a href="http://maoistresitance.blogspot.com/">maoistresitance.blogspot.com</a>. Police has also blocked Naxal revolution.blogspot but expect another blog to replace it. <span style="font-weight: bold;">From the police side, <a href="http://www.naxalwatch.blogspot.com/">www.naxalwatch.blogspot.com</a>, an anti-Maoist website supported by AP-based police, is a popular anti-Naxal blogspot</span></b></span>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6033686292386641734.post-55553057808808555882007-12-23T22:46:00.001-08:002007-12-23T22:47:00.120-08:00<div style="text-align: center;"> <div class="post-body entry-content"> <p>PEOPLESMARCH BLOCKED GOVINDAN KUTTY ARRESTED...............<br />SEE THE STORY...................<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Following words pained us in last year....</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">We have moved. Till May 2006, we were maintaining a fairly healthy site www.peoplesmarch.com. But our service provider, was asked to block our website on 15th May 2006. On 17th May, the minister of state for home affairs, replied to a query in rajya sabha regarding pro Maoist/naxal websites. We believe that an individial has an unalienable right of speech and expression, by virtue of his birth. We will exercise that right, and this site is a step in that direction.<br /><br />Feel free to leave your comments ........ peoplesmarch@gmail.com.<br /><br />P.Govindan kutty, Editor, People's March<br /><br />Mob: 91 99472 76692<br /><br />Peroor House, Tripunithura PO Box No 56, Ernakulam, Kerala,<br /><br />INDIA 682 301</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />This Year Again We read a news on December 07</span><br /><br />CPI MAOIST BLOG BLOCKED<br /><br />Friday December 7 2007 09:50 IST<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">KOZHIKODE: The blogspot of People’s March, the unofficial magazine of the CPI (Maoists) which has been publishing the Maoist literature from all over the country, was blocked on Thursday.<br /><br />It is not immediately known as to why peoplesmarch. googlepages. com was disabled, but the service provider has left a message saying that the action was taken for violation of ‘program policies.’<br /><br />According to the Google Page Creator, its service should not be used for unlawful activities.<br /><br />People’s March is being published from Tripunithura in Ernakulam and is edited by P.Govindan Kutty. The print edition is not banned by the authorities.<br /><br />“I had uploaded an item yesterday. But today I found the site blocked. Even my gmail ID has been disabled,” Govindan Kutty told this website’s newspaper.<br /><br />The website of People’s March was blocked a year ago by the Centre for its alleged association with the Maoists.<br /><br />The blocking of the blog is the latest in the series of the war of wit between the Maoists in India and the law enforcing authorities.<br /><br />Maoists have been widely using the internet to propogate its ideology among the public.<br /><br />Resistanceindia. blogsot.com, a Maoist blog was hacked in August this year.<br /><br />Another blog naxalrevolution. blogspot withdrew after one year of operation.<br /><br />But the supporters of Maoists have created another blog maoistsresistance. blogspot.com which is active now.<br /><br />There is another blogspot naxalwatch. blogspot.com, which is believed to be hosted or supported by the intelligence agencies to spread the message among the public that naxalism is “pure and simple terrorism which disguises itself in terms like class struggle and social justice.”<br /><br />People’s March has been a major mouthpiece of the Indian Maoists. It has carried articles on Maoist programmes and interviews with leaders including CPI (Maoist) general secretary Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi and spokesperson Azad.<br /><br />One issue of the magazine was exclusively on Dandakarayna region where the Maoists are running a parallel government and another on the women martyrs of the Maoist movement.<br /><br />It also carried extensive reports on the developments in Nandigram.<br /><br />Security agencies feel that it is impossible for a single person to produce a magazine like People’s March.<br /><br />They believe that there could be many behind the venture who are behind the curtain at present.<br /><br />Kerala is a state where the Maoists are keeping a low profile unlike the Andhra Pradesh and some areas in the north.<br /><br />But it is no longer a secret that senior Maoist leaders keep frequenting the state at regular intervals.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AFTER WE SEE A NEWS THAT</span><br /><br />Porattam’ condemns arrest of Maoist leader<br /><br />Staff Reporter<br /><br />PALAKKAD: “Porattam,” a revolutionary organisation, has condemned the arrest of the Maoist leader Malla Raji Reddy of Andhra Pradesh from Kochi.<br /><br />In a statement here on Thursday, Porattam state convener Mundur Ravunni said the arrest was to satisfy the interests of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the State. It was also for protecting some narrow political interests in Kerala.<br /><br />The statement also condemned the arrest of P. Govindan Kutty, Editor and Publisher of People’s March.<br /><br />The search in the office of the publication by the police was an attack on the freedom of press. <br /><br /><br />AFTER DECADES LONG TORTURE OF INDIAN STATE ON MR GOVINDAN KUTTY NOW THEY TAKEN HIM TO PRISON IN THE NAME OF TREASON AND PUBLISHED MANY FAKE STORIES ABOUT HIM IN ALL THE MEDIAS....<br />THE PEOPLE,WHO DID GENOCIDES AND CORRUPTION OR ALL THE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IS STILL RULING INDIA AND DOMINATED IN ALL SECTORS THEY FEEL MR GOVINDAN KUTTY AS DISTURBANCE.<br />FINALLY THEY WON AND PUT MR.GOVINDAN KUTTY IN PRISON.<br />THEY THINKS IT IS THE END OF THE PEOPLES MOVEMENT.<br /><br />PRISONS WILL BREAK CHAINS WILL BREAK,SAME AS WHAT HAPPENED IN DANTEWADA,<br />JEHANABADH,PATNA..<br />PEOPLE WILL MAKE THEMSELVES FREE FROM ALL THE OPPRESSION AND TORTURE.<br />IF GOVINDAN KUTTY IN PRISON WE ARE HERE TO FULFILL HIS DREAMS<br />PEOPLES MARCH WILL NEVER DIE IT WILL CONTINUE AND WORK AGAINST ALL OPPRESSIONS.<br /><br />AN OLD INTERVIEW OF GOVINDAN KUTTY<br />Interview<br /><br />Q When and where were you born? What was your early childhood?<br /><br />A I was born on 20th February, 1948 in a lower middle class family at Tambaram in Chinglepet district in Tamilnadu. My father P Sankunny Menon married very late in his life and I was born in his 41st year. Till then he was looking after his sister and her children. In 1933 he used to spend 1/3 of his salary (Rs 6/= PM) on his nephew’s education and till his joining a job as stenographer in Qatar. In due course he got his promotion as cable jointer in Southern Railways and we all shifted our residence to railway quarters at Chetpet in Madras city. I have one younger brother and three younger sisters.<br /><br />My mother P.Parukutty used to give private tuitions for school going children at home. I too used to assist her in her tuition work. We had a lot of cows too to look after. While returning from school I used to bring a head load of grass for the cows.<br /><br />Being an extra-ordinary brilliant student in my elementary school I found no difficulty in getting admission for Higher Secondary schooling in one of the prestigious/elite schools. (Madras Christian College High School). Being a meritorious student I got 50% fee concession and the school management presented me the whole textbooks and notebooks on the first working day. My classmates were from the top elite families in Madras city.<br /><br />Being a Christian institution we were taught the Bible. During Bible classes I used to keenly observe and put such questions to my teacher, which the teacher wouldn't be able to answer. At home too I used to ask questions to my parents to show me God. Why we have so many Gods? I used to put questions like if I pray one God won’t the other Gods get angry and harm me, In almost all my moves I was more interested in unearthing the truth. From my childhood I never hide truth or told any lie no matter what difficulties I faced.<br /><br />After the India-China War, the Nehru Government reduced the retirement age from 58 to 55 and my father lost his job and government accommodation. Sensing that he may not live for another 5 years due to his poor health he did not opt for pension scheme took all his earnings which came to around Rs 7,000/=<br /><br />In 1963 I was 15, my brother 13 and my three sisters were 11, 9 and 7. We all had to shift to a very small one-room accommodation. (No electricity- No water facility) The school offered me provisional admission for higher studies at Madras Christian College Tambaram three months before the Secondary school final examinations. My father expressed his inability to send me for college education.<br /><br />As I was a meritorious student I found no difficulty in getting admission in three year Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at Central Polytechnic, Madras in 1964 and was awarded merit-cum-means scholarship of Rs 50/= PM which is more than sufficient to buy 50 Kgs of fine quality rice. I passed my Diploma in Mechanical Engineering with Machine shop Technology as elective subject in 1967. We were against imposition of Hindi. In fact I was one of the active leaders in Poly-Technic in the anti-Hindi agitations that time.<br /><br />Then came another war with Pakistan and the prospects of employment diminished further. The Government banned fresh recruitments. I had to take up menial jobs as daily casual laborer in Signal & Telecommunication Department in Railways at the rate of Rs 3=50 per day where my father too sought employment as cable jointer on daily wage basis of Rs 6/= per day after retirement from permanent service. There was corruption in recruitments in defense services too.<br /><br />I could not be selected for the post of Direct Entry Artificer (Second Lieutenant in Navy) as I could not grease the palms of the officials. I took up menial jobs on low salary in Industrial Estates in Ambattur, Madras. During that time I attended evening classes and passed Diploma in Refrigeration & Air-conditioning Engineering in 1969 from Central Polytechnic, Madras. During that period I gained experience in the erection, testing and commissioning of Air-conditioning, Ventilation and Dust control equipments for theatres and many industries.<br /><br />Q Who were your main influences early in your life and what attracted<br />you towards the the Naxalite Movement ?<br /><br />A It took almost 20 years for me to realize that non-violent struggles are of no use and armed revolutionary struggles are the only answer to the present ills faced by the people. Here I narrate my experiences to seek justice with non-violent struggles, which finally led me get separated from my family to support a movement, which conducts a revolutionary armed struggle.<br /><br />This is one of the reasons for giving lengthy answer is to advise the people who believe in and expose the leaders who mis-lead people in non-violent struggle is that being a well educated man I lost all my energy to understand the non-violent struggle and at this old age I am unable to do a violent revolutionary struggle which alone is the answer to the present ills faced by the people.<br /><br />My stint with Communism<br /><br />It was while doing fresh air ventilation systems at Central & Ajanta theatres in Trivandrum, Kerala I had the opportunity to watch a film (“You made me a Communist”) Ningal Enne Communistaki umpteen number of times. This was the first time I spent more time in my life during my Kerala visit. Even though I was quite impressed by the theme & ideology of the communist movement the activities of the lumped communist cadres in public life gave a second thought of the communist movement.<br /><br />Again the war with Pakistan in 1971 destroyed my job prospects. In 1972 I got a temporary job as Draughtsman (Mechanical) at Central Leather Research Institute, Madras. I thought that by gradually working temporarily I could settle down at Central Leather Research Institute. All those dreams short-lived as the corrupt scientist advised me to work under a private entrepreneur saying that he has no further sanction to employ me. (It was the private entrepreneur who sought my services from the scientist)<br /><br />Within a year the private entrepreneur’s turnover was raised from Rs 5,000/= to Rs 1,00,000/= He neither rewarded me nor the laborers for their work.<br /><br />My stint with Capitalism<br /><br />In 1973 I quit the job and pledged 18 grams of gold (which I purchased with the merit-cum-means scholarship money) to a moneylender for Rs 400/=(CAPITAL) and started a small production unit at my residence for producing clips for drying leather under the brand name Tan-Wel. The CAPITAL doubled the very next day. That CAPITAL and the Surplus further doubled further. I was paying three times the wages than other employers. I purchased a lot of machineries & tools for further development. I was earning an average daily earning of more than Rs 500/= per day.<br /><br />This production went well for six months. Till then during my 25 years of life I had never visited any temples or worshiped any God. I was working 16 hours a day. I had no time even to take food. My health started deteriorating due to over exhaustion. All these years in my life I was a non-believer. I do not, or what exactly was the reason, which changed me to a believer to make my first pilgrimage to Sabarimala in December 1973.<br /><br />I do not know anything about Naxalism even though I remember reading<br />in The Hindu on July 1972 about a news item in a small corner about<br />a certain Charu Mazumdar who was on fast and had died in custody.<br /><br />In Government Service<br /><br />In September 1974, I received an offer of appointment for the post of Asst Foreman in the Civil Engineering Division of dept of Space, Bangalore to report for duty at Thumba, Trivandrum. (A lot of posts in Air-conditioning fell vacant due to Gulf exodus as the Govt relaxed rules for getting passports) I was reluctant to join the Govt job as I was earning 10 times the salary of Govt job.<br /><br />Due to my mother’s compulsion I joined the Govt job at Thumba in September 1974. I found that almost all the files were stinking with corruption. Jaya Prakash Narayan was leading a morcha against corruption in politics and in Govt. JP was telling naxalites to lay down arms for one year and support his movement of Total Revolution. In Kerala the whole politics was lumpenised by youth congress of Sanjay Gandhi and Communists. There was total confusion. I too was confused.<br /><br />Indira Gandhi imposed emergency. All opposition leaders were put behind bars. Press gagged. JP movement was centered in Gujrath & Bihar. There was no trace of JP movement in Kerala. Who is right? Indira or JP. I too was confused.<br /><br />I supported 20 point programme of the government. I referred all the facts to the Central Vigilance Commission, New Delhi. The Central Vigilance Commission forwarded all my complaints to the Chief Engineer at Bangalore who in turn forwarded the same to Construction Engineer at Thumba and the same was on the table of the Supdt. Engineer. The Govt too was in dilemma and sought fresh intelligence verification to ascertain my background.<br /><br />The Pettah police in Trivandrum took me into unlawful custody on 5th March 1976.<br /><br />I was shifted to maintenance wing on deputation to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. I applied for Govt quarters and shifted my parents and sisters to Thumba in September 1976. The Emergency was lifted and the Janata party came to power in March 1977.<br /><br />I opted for mutual marriage in February 1978. In April 1978 the CPI-M union & the INTUC union launched an agitation for the refund of Compulsory Deposit Scheme. (50% of impounded DA) I applied for a months leave with LTC advance and was sanctioned.<br /><br />I was suspended on 7th April, 1978. Later the suspension was revoked and my LTC bills were settled. But they withheld a part of my salary during the period of suspension. All my efforts to get back my withheld salary proved futile. As I was pressurizing the Shah Commission of enquiry proceedings I was promoted as Foreman A/c in February, 1979 .The Morarji ministry collapsed along with the Sky Lab in July 1979. The Charan Singh ministry too collapsed a little later.<br /><br />I tried more vigorously for my withheld salary. From 1st December 1979 onwards I started attending office with slogans printed on my shirt. The slogans were:<br /><br />NO CRIMINAL CASE<br />NO CHARGE SHEET<br />NO ENQUIRY INITIATED<br />PROMOTED ME AFTER SUSPENSION<br />THEN WHY WITHHOLD MY SALARY<br /><br />The Executive Engineer did not allow me to sign the attendance register and my salary (for December 1979) was withheld from January 1980. Indira Gandhi Govt came to power. From January 1980 onwards I have virtually come out on the streets with a pla-card and a baby food tin for fund collection.<br /><br />The VSSC authorities transferred me to Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. I challenged their order by saying that the Chief Engineer, Civil Engineering Division, Dept of Space, Bangalore is my appointing authority and he alone has the authority to transfer me. A leading Malayalam daily highlighted my plight on 11th May 1980 under the caption “Needhi Labhikkan Otrekkoru Samaram”<br /><br />I visited Delhi a number of times for PUCL meetings. I met many revolutionaries. I had differences of opinion and thought. I worked for sometime under one such outfit of an ML group called “Janakeeya Samskarika Vedhi” which conducted public trial of corrupt doctors at Calicut.<br /><br />The Govt mounted heavy surveillance on me. Every month on the salary day I used to stand outside the gates with a placard and an empty baby food tin and collect token contributions of 10 paise only. I used to distribute one pamphlet in English and Malayalam every month exposing the misdeeds of bogus revolutionaries.<br /><br />In September 1981, while collecting token contributions in front of the gates the CISF guards pounced on me and handed me over to local police station and were charged under various provisions of trespass and attempt to murder. After a year the trial court was unable to convict me and was let off.<br /><br />With the tacit support of my in-laws and the open support of Karunakaran’s goons and bogus revolutionaries they succeeded in evicting me illegally on 31st March 1983 (after depriving me of my livelihood for 39 months) and was locked up at Thumba police station.<br /><br />My brother in law met me at Central Prison. He wanted bail me out. I said, no to bail.. Then he said, don’t come to Kozhipuram after coming out of jail. After 14 days I was thrown put of jail on personal bond even though I did not sign any bond papers.<br /><br />They sabotaged my struggle and my revenge (non violent)<br /><br />On my release from jail in Apr 1983, I purchased a spade and reached my in-law’s house at Chamravattam in Tirur. I told them that I am not going to take to the pen and will only use this spade for my livelihood. As they were one of the biggest feudal lords no one would give me such jobs. Everyday I used to do physical work in their fields and farm. My in-laws fooled the public that I have become mad.<br /><br />One day they managed to mix sedatives in my food admitted me in a mental hospital run by Dr Vijayan at Calicut. When I gained consciousness I found that I was lying in a mental hospital. My wife too had her role in this episode. I felt that if I harm her children would suffer. Then the other target was her aunt. Some how I managed to control my anger and dropped the idea of killing her aunt in September 1983 who was responsible for admitting me in mental hospital. I gave them a stern warning that if any such attempts were repeated something worsts they will face.<br /><br />It was the conspiracy of the government to regularize my service with a certificate from a mental hospital and to clear the corruption charges<br />initiated by me.<br /><br />My brother in law (by mutual marriage) arrived from Nigeria and we had discussions on finding a solution to the vexed problem. I told him that you have sabotaged my struggle and I won’t take pen anymore. You are not getting any returns from your farm. I will work in your farm. You take my wife and children to Hydrabad. I will come once in three months to Hydrabad. I will manage your farm. He was not willing. Then you should forget about your farm and we all (including your mother & aunt) will go to Hydrabad. We should not come back here. He agreed. He had other ideas.<br /><br />We all reached Hydrabad on 1st July 1984. We admitted our children in schools. They again opened up the topic of (within a week of reaching Hydrabad) admitting me in mental hospital. I again warned him against such moves by him. I gave threats like “I will commit suicide”. I was not taking food for fear of food might get mixed with sedatives. I had no money. I thought of running from them. Then also they will not leave me. They will hunt me.<br /><br />My mother in law uttered that this man has threatened many times that he will commit suicide. He has not committed suicide even once. This provoked me. Why should I take away my life? Why should I die? Taking away one’s own life is also a violent struggle. My wife was a dumb spectator. Her sister committed suicide two years back. Non-violent struggles all these years are finally going to land me in a mental hospital. If I have to survive violent struggle was the next option.<br /><br />Call a lamb a dog, then a stray dog so that it can be killed. That was the govt., policy ?<br /><br />No charge sheets framed against me even after 90 days. I launched hunger fast for not framing charge sheet within 90 days. The notorious Supt of jail at Secundrabad put me in the condemned prisoner’s cell. On hearing the violent death of Indira Gandhi over radio I broke my fast and took food. That day all the other jail mates did not take food. Drama rao dissolved the assembly and went for polls along with Lok Sabha.<br /><br />I was unable to defend myself as to why my wife & sister gave false evidence. (False motive supporting prosecution version)<br /><br />In the High Court the advocate Krishna rao (provided by the Govt) without my consent or even seeing me argued that I am insane. The notorious High Court judge while disposing my criminal gave such a remark that “If the jail authorities feel at any time that the accused who is of freak mind and needs treatment for psychosis they may take appropriate action, however he will not get the benefit of exemption U/s 84 IPC, his appeal is dismissed”.<br /><br />This notorious judge was later appointed as Chairman of Law Commission. With such judicial remarks in my high court judgment jail authorities can at any time during my incarceration shift me to a mental hospital and be branded as insane and keep me in jail till death.<br /><br />In December 1994 Political Prisoners of CPI (ML) (PW) launched a struggle in all the jail of AP with 43 demands (7 political demands of which lifting the ban on Peoples War was the main) in which release of life convicts who have completed 7 years of prison life was one among.. During 1994 Assembly elections Rama rao promised release of all those who are of good conduct and have completed 10 years of prison life. My tally was 10 years and 6 months of completed prison term. Rama rao could not keep up his promises.<br /><br />Probably the bureaucracy and the central intelligence colluded and finally when the GO came only the prisoners who have completed 14 years of sentence including remission were released. On 18th January 1995. My tally including remission was 13 years 9 months and 7 days. The Supdt., of the jail has not put his pen on my history ticket from 1991 to 1994. Had they had granted me 87 days remission for 4 years and released me on 18th January, 1995 the story would have been different. …………………………They made me a naxalite.<br /><br />The Historic Turning Point<br /><br />The main gate blocked my freedom. There was a gate. On the left near the main gate where political prisoners of the CPI (ML) (Peopel's War ) were lodged and ordinary prisoners are denied entry. I along with a few prisoners managed to slip into their barracks and met S Appa rao and M Balakrishna and sought their help in our DO or DIE struggle for freedom. They readily offered support.<br /><br />We (12 life convicts) launched indefinite hunger fast. Other prisoners from all the jails in AP undertook the hunger fast. The political prisoners supported our struggles they too joined the fast. The Party extended full support for our struggle. Outside the jail Joint Action Council for Democratic Rights (JACDR) mobilized the people and extended full support by organizing various programmes in front of AP Assembly. On behalf of APCLC MT Khan, petitions were filed by Advocate Bharat in High Court of AP. On the 10th day 3 prisoners withdrew from the fast. On the 15th day 3 more prisoners withdrew from the fast.<br /><br />Relay hunger fasts were conducted by ordinary prisoners in each barrack a day from various jails of AP. Jail authorities used lumped elements like Kotha Das to pressurize ordinary prisoners to take food. Party warned Kotha Das of dire consequences for his indulgence. The 6 prisoners health deteriorated at the rate of half Kg a day. All the mis-propaganda in the media by jail officials and the Govt were effectively countered and contained by the party. After 25 days of the fast the jail officials and doctors were unable to come near the hunger fasters for fear of VIOLENCE from the hunger fasters. The jail doctors advised the Govt., “We are washing off our hands”.<br /><br />The Govt became panicky. On 17th February 1995 the petition filed by Advocate Bharat came up for hearing. Senior Advocate KG Kannabiran argued the case. The Govt pleader could not open his mouth. The High Court on 17th February, 1995 ordered release of all those who have completed 7 years of prison term.<br /><br />KG Kannabiran, MT Khan, Bharat, VV Rao, Gaddar and many lawyers reached jail on 17th February 1995 and informed us about the High Court judgment and we broke the fast on the 31st day. The Govt did not release us after the judgment. We had to wait for two more months in jail till the expiry of the appeal time for the Govt. After two months contempt petitions were again filed. Again there was delay. On lifting the ban on Party also there were contradictory statements from Rama rao and HP Dora the DG of police. At one stage Rama rao uttered who is Govt? Me or Dora. On 27th May, 1995, Rama rao’s birthday Home Minister Indra reddy visited jail and distributed fruits. We gheraoed the Home Minister for delaying our release. We warned the jail official that our next move would be breaking open the jail walls for our release. Situations became panicky.<br /><br />On 7th July 1995 night half the jail became empty. We were thrown out of jail. It was this heroic AP jail struggle, which inspired me to work with such fearless warriors for the rest of my life.<br /><br />It was only from February 1995 I started reading literatures of Marx, Engels, Lenin & Mao. I was admitted into prison as an ordinary prisoner and came out as a political prisoner on 7th July 1995.<br /><br />Q What were your main tasks in the movement?<br /><br />A As per the advise of S Appa rao I started an Association called Association for Protection of Prisoner’s Rights and took up several issues to the Courts of Law in Hydrabad. Then I worked in All India People’s Resistance Forum (AIPRF) for three years in Delhi. I worked in Trade Unions for organizing un-organized workers in Delhi for three years. Then I was managing New Vistas Publications in Delhi for one year. For the past four years I am managing People’s March in Kerala.<br /><br />Q How active is the Naxalite movement in Kerala today ?<br /><br />A It is easy to make a person who does not know anything about communism a revolutionary. It is very difficult or rather impossible to make a communist (revisionist) in Kerala a revolutionary. Most of the youth in Kerala have turned pessimists and do not wish to take part in revolutionary struggles. They pledge their mother’s jewellary with private bankers or money lenders for a Visa and go out and settle in Dubai for 10 years .Then flush with money they come back and build a house, get married and with dowry money put up additional structures such as a bakery or a small shop.They then plant two or three coconut trees for making chutney to be eaten with rice.Finally they rent a portion of the house to cover the child’s education.<br /><br />You can see the confusion from the voices of CPI-M Chief Ministers of Kerala & West Bengal.<br /><br />Kerala CM says .................. No to Coca Cola, FDI<br />West Bengal CM says ........ Yes to Coca cola, FDI<br /><br />You can see a large number of labourers from West Bengal, Tamilnadu, Andhra, Orissa working as building construction workers on meager wages in Kerala. For them Kerala is a mini Dubai. With all these odds & revisionist CPI & CPI-M some initiatives were taken and some progress were made in the past two or three years.<br /><br /><br />Q What is your opinion on the large number of people with ex-naxalites tag?<br />Do you consider them as people who have betrayed the Indian revolution ?<br /><br />A In Kerala there are many ex-naxalites. Some are supporting Globalisation. Some have turned Saibaba’s devotees. Ajitha is running an NGO. In other places in India many have joined the parliamentary path. Some say both parliamentary & armed struggle. Some say time is not ripe for armed struggle and participate in elections. In Tamilnadu there is TNML.<br /><br />Being the Editor of People’s March during an interaction with a Red Flag activist I put the following conversations. My dear friend, you say time is not ripe for armed struggle and unless and until all people were prepared for armed revolution you wished to mobiles people for armed revolution. Suppose in a hundred people you go on asking them whether they are ready for the armed revolution.<br /><br />When you reach the 99th person a person in 10th who had earlier said yes may now say “No not now”. Taking into consideration all these factors and suppose you finally have succeeded in mobilizing all the people to say “Yes, we are ready for the armed struggle”. You have to give them arms.<br /><br />From where you will get arms? Will you float global tenders for arms? Will the revolution wait till the arms arrive? Where is the money to buy arms? Will it be readily available in the market? Will the army of the rulers hand over their weapons to your mobilized people? You have to give them training to use the arms. That takes another three to four months. Will the revolution wait?<br /><br />Unable to answer these queries put forth by me many cadres escape by saying “Comrade I will meet you sometime later and discuss with you in detail” and will never be seen at a later date.<br /><br />These people repeat the story that our great grand mother’s used to tell us.It was called “How to catch a crow”. The story went that when the crow is sitting in the hot Sun you have to go behind the crow and keep some butter on its head. Slowly the butter will melt and a little later the crow will find it difficult to see anything.. Then you can go and catch the crow easily.<br /><br />All these ML parties preach & praise Naxalbari & Mao, keep big name boards issue identity cards to as cardholder. Do they adhere the three magic weapons as stated by Com Mao, The secret Party, People’s army & united front?<br /><br />Almost all brand CPI Maoist as anarchists. Mao said,<br />“Revolution is not a Tea Party”. It is a bitter<br />struggle where serving the people with extreme sacrifice is of paramount<br />importance.<br /><br />I quote Gaddar’s lyrics.<br /><br />Grease leni bandi eppudu nadavaledhura<br />Thyagam leni viplavamu mundhukku podhura<br />(Without grease a cart cannot move forward<br />Without sacrifice revolution cannot move forward)<br /><br />So coming to your question. Not all can be called as betrayers. Many could not cope up with the hard & tedious revolutionary life quit the movement. All others under the official ML brand name serving the ruling classes either directly or indirectly are betrayers of the Indian Revolution.<br /><br />Q As the editor of People’sMarch you have withstood constant repression and<br />harassment which would have normally broken the spirit of an ordinary man.<br />Tell us more about the ways in which the police and authorities<br />constantly intimidate you despite People’s March being a legally registered<br />magazine and how do you cope with this type of harassment?..<br /><br />A It is only tactical, be it ruling classes or revolutionary parties. For ruling classes it was compulsions of promising people before elections on lifting the bans. It is quite common and it is observed that the ban on any movement or any magazine only helped to get more publicity than it had before the people.<br /><br />Right from Drama rao in 1982 till the recent elections these rulers played the naxalite card to win over the people. You are going to see that again just before the next elections in 2009. They keep high-resolution video cameras in high-rise buildings and film the entire procession after lifting the ban and scan them to identify the people who support the movement and harass them when the ban was imposed again.<br /><br />Many agents of enemies infiltrate the movement to gather information and inform the rulers. People’s March being a Regd newspaper also has many subscribers posing themselves as sympathizers. They seek to establish contact with the movement showing that they are regular readers of People’s March. The rulers are also aware that even if this magazine is banned the same contents will appear in some form or another, which could be very difficult to trace it.<br /><br />So they won’t ban People’s March. They only try to eliminate the person who mans the People’s March. In Feb 2006 when Naidu was calling for a referendum on Naxalism V/s Development they sent my children’s photos that I haven’t seen far more than two decades thinking that I may visit them at Hydrabad so that they can with a complaint extracted from their mother who gave false evidence in the court leading to my conviction for life imprisonment at Hydrabad in 1985 so that I can be put behind bars again.<br /><br />As that fiasco failed they sent a CD in Nov 2005 containing porn video of my wife taken in 1984 by threatening her to implicate her in the case along with her husband to maim her voice forever so that she won’t turn hostile during trial to give false evidence against her husband leading to his conviction to life imprisonment in Hydrabad in 1985. These are all Psycho Wars being launched by the police to eliminate me.<br /><br />They thought that I might get heart attack on seeing the past as to how they ruined my life and that of my family. This fiasco too ended in dramatic move of the revisionist CPI-M came as a surprise to everybody throwing out Karunakaran led DIC (K) out of LDF before the assembly elections. Till then Karunakaran the notorious naxal baiter was shouting from rooftops as the next Home Minister.<br /><br />After the May 4 elections they blocked the website www.peoplesmarch.com by threatening the service provider through a confidential letter stating that it is hosting anti-national contents.<br /><br />People know that we love our people and our country much more than these traitorous Manmohans & Vajpayees. Though we never wished to be called as nationalists we are not anti-national. We are internationalists. Further the government freely allows thousands & thousands of porn sites to deter youth from any nation building activities or to resist & rebel against the traitorous policies of the rulers of our country.<br /><br />Further they are challenging me. Where is your honesty? What it has paid you? You were class I officer in Space Department, Thumba. Had you been with us in the ‘mainstream’ you at this age of 60 could have become a Supdt., Engineer and got retired with a handsome pension. We have had power to throw you out of your government quarters in 1983. We had the power to make a lamb a dog. Then called it a stray dog so that it can be killed. We pressurized your in-laws to admit you in a mental asylum. Finally in a conspiracy hatched by Indira - PVN - Karunakaran we put you behind bars in an unfortunate incident in 1984. We took your wife in custody and threatened her to implicate her in the case and forced her to tender evidence against you by filming her porn video so that her voices are maimed forever and she doesn't turn hostile during trial leading to your conviction to life imprisonment for life in Hydrabad in 1985. Anticipating your release from jail in 1994 we ( PVN & Karunakaran ) floated the SPY SCANDEL (without a SPY) in Space Department.<br /><br />You have not changed. You don't want to join the MAIN STREAM. We sent you the porn video CD. We have put that 145 MB porn video on website too with links to thousands & thousands of websites. We have the power to block your 50 MB People's March website.<br /><br />We can harm your children and their mother and implicate you in the case and put you behind bars again for which we have planted your eldest son Sachidanand as Reporter in The Hindu at Hydrabad under naxal baiter K Srinivas Reddy to report your arrest to convince my three boys as I am to be done away with.<br /><br />This is the message they are giving me. It is a Psycho War on the Editor, of People's March. Read Jun-Jul 2006 cover story.<br /><br />It was unfortunate and incorrect to put such details on the cover of the last issue of a revolutionary magazine. Though the Indian Intelligence is harassing the editor there is no justification to have put such vulgar details in the magazine. As Editor of People’s March I apologized to the readers for the contents on the cover page of the last issue.<br /><br />As editor of People’s March I take this as a sign that we are winning. As Comrade Mao said, “to be attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing but a good thing”.<br /><br />Q Where do you see the Naxalite movement 5 years down the line?<br /><br />A Brig BK Punwar (India’s leading Jungle War specialist) told CNN IBN TV recently in an interview that the politburo of the naxalites say that by 2010, 33% of India will be in their hands.<br /><br />Q Do you think the Indian revolution will eclipse both the Russian and<br />Chinese revolutions in terms of achievement and impact? Do you believe<br />you will live to see the day when the Indian revolution will triumph?<br /><br />A You see Russian & Chinese revolutions learnt lessons from Paris Commune and succeeded in revolutionizing the people to victory. After all it is the people of India who have to complete this task. Conditions are ripe for a revolutionary upsurge.<br /><br />Barbarakar Gir jayega, yeh sadi gali vivastha ki mahal …<br />bus ek dakka milkar lagana padega.......<br />( This whole stinking structure of the social order will fall in no time<br />All that we have to do is to join our hands together and give it one last push)<br /><br />We are not astrologers to predict & forecast when the Indian revolution will triumph? It may take one year, 5 years, or might 50 years or even 150 years. All their attempts to destroy the movement failed. They killed hundreds of revolutionaries. The result was thousands of revolutionaries cropped up. No blood shed by the martyrs went waste. From each & every drop of blood shed by martyrs hundreds of revolutionaries raised.<br /><br />Weh thamam phoolon ko nasht kar sakthein…<br />magar vasant ko tho nahi rok payenghe.<br />( They can destroy all the flowers but<br />They won't be able hold back the spring season from arriving )<br /><br />People can be fooled once, twice, thrice but not always. You see people are rising from every nook & corner of our country. Be it peasants, Workers, Youth, Students, Dalith, Adivasis, Minorities, Women, now even middle classes also started raising their voices.<br /><br />Q Would you care to hazard a guess as to when the red flag shall fly over the red fort in India?<br />A We are not Astrologers. But the days are not far off.<br /><br />Q What is your message to the youth of the country?<br /><br />A These are my personal experiences and the views and are in no way<br />connected with any revolutionary party as to why I support armed struggle.<br /><br />It is a historical fact that nowhere in the world the oppressors have stopped<br />oppression or have ceded power through peaceful means.<br /><br />You start from American war of independence.<br /><br />You see Narmada Bachav Andolan. First it stared with opposing 80 metres. It started with a slogan Dubenghe, Marenghe .... Bandh Nahin Banega. Then Jal Samadhi. Now it is more than two decades. Along with the agitation the dam height too have come up to 121 metres. In another ten years it will easily rise to the full 145 metres with Medha’s help as all those people who were capable of leading armed struggle have now become older by 25 years. The question of compensation and other things are a farce. They were driven out of their habitats .<br /><br />No one ever wishes to start any sort armed struggle or confrontation with the state. It is the situations that make people to confront the state with armed defensive struggles.<br /><br />Arundathi’s fears are100 % correct.<br />“If they don’t get justice they all will join Maoists”.<br /><br />They say Maoists are violent. Maoists say the whole world is violent. We say prostitution is sexual violence. Corruption is violence. Not paying minimum wages and forcing the worker to work more than 8 hours a day to meet his ends is also violence. Take the statistics. 50 percent of the world resources are utilized for making weapons. What for? To shoot birds. No. To kill humanity.<br /><br />Arundathi was right in saying,”Gone are the days when weapons were made to fight wars … now wars are made to sell weapons”. Bush killed 3,50,000 in Iraq alone and these killings were flashed on TV screens as fire festivals the world over. 3,000 Muslims were butchered in Gujrath in three days. 3,000 Sikhs were butchered in Delhi in three days. In Andhra the number of people killed by ruling class factions outnumbers the people killed by revolutionaries.<br /><br />They talk about the destruction of public property by Maoists. Let us take statistics. Bush destroyed the whole of Iraq. Capitalism means destruction and reconstruction. 300 crores of property was destroyed in Vijayawada alone when Rajiv Gandhis died.<br /><br />There was no revolutionary movement in early 70’s. I was 27 in 1975. JP advised naxalites to hold their gun down for one year. Emergency. I was not a naxalite then. I did not know who Marx, Lenin or Mao is. I then had enough strength and stamina to be part of or to initiate armed struggle. I opted for non-violent struggle and it has only left me<br />with bitter experiences.<br /><br />You talk about elections. Indira Gandhi declared Emergency to stay on in power. Indira Gandhi befriended Bindrenwala to break Akali Dal..<br /><br />Rajiv Gandhi opened Babri Masjid for Hindu votes. Advani made Rath Yatra<br />for Hindu votes.<br /><br />VP Singh’s Mandal followed by BJP’s Kamandal, Shilanyas and Kar Sewa finally led to demolition of Babri Masjid and sought Rama’ s help to come to power.<br /><br />Then PV Narsimha rao said,” I paid one crore and saved the govt treasury to the tune of 900 crores from an impending election”.<br /><br />What Karunakaran said ?, “ Kodoth lost the election because of liquor and money”.<br /><br />Vajpayee claimed credit for 5 Nuclear explosions and went for elections which was countered by Musharaff’s Nuclear explosions.<br /><br />Modi went for election immediately after Gujrath carnage.<br /><br />23 women were killed in a stampede in saree distribution in Vajpayee's constituency.<br /><br />JD(S) Air lifted 47 MLA’s to Goa and BJP Air lifted 68 MLA’s to Chennai to install H D Kumaraswamy.<br /><br />21 ‘mainstream’ MLA’s from Jharkhand were loitering in the backwaters in Alleppey Dist., of Kerala in the early second week of Sept 2006 fearing Indian Democracy.<br /><br />Sops like color TV’s & computers dominated TN election.<br /><br />Now there is competition among ‘patriots’ to force the children to sing Vande Matharam.<br /><br />All these attempts by these traitors were only to divert the attention of the people from the real issues being faced by the people…<br /><br />Roti, Kapada, Pani, Noukri, Swasth, Saksharatha our Makhan.(Bread,clothes,water,job,health and house )<br /><br />They want the Maoists to join the murky mainstream and to contest elections and prove their strength.<br />CPI laid down arms and won the elections with overwhelming majority for the first time in world history in 1957.<br />What happened ?<br />It was dismissed with the stroke of a pen.<br /><br />Once again I wish to state that I am not fond of armed struggle. Now at this age of 60 I cannot take part in armed struggle. I support it as I have experienced the bitter truth of non-violent struggles. Do not waste your time & energy in peaceful struggles and don’t get mis-led by by leaders leading non-violent struggles. Save our country from the clutches of these traitors. Innumerable martyrs have shed their blood to free the country from the clutches of these unscrupulous looters.<br /><br />To realise the dreams of innumerable martyrs .....<br />Hold high the prestigious Red Flag of The CPI(Maoist) Party for the victory of the Indian Revolution.</p> </div> <div class="post-footer"> <p class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><span class="post-author vcard">Posted by <span class="fn">AP</span> </span><span class="post-timestamp">at <a class="timestamp-link" title="permanent link" href="http://peoplesmarchindia.blogspot.com/2007/12/peoplesmarch.html" rel="bookmark"><abbr class="published" title="2007-12-23T08:42:00-08:00">8:42 AM</abbr></a> </span><span class="post-comment-link"><a class="comment-link" onclick="" href="comment.g?blogID=5959253196151914097&postID=3889547663777490470">0 comments</a> </span><span class="post-backlinks post-comment-link"></span><span class="post-icons"><span class="item-control blog-admin pid-1105850025"><a title="Edit Post" href="post-edit.g?blogID=5959253196151914097&postID=3889547663777490470"><img class="icon-action" alt="" src="img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" /> </a></span></span></p> <p class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-2"><span class="post-labels">Labels: <a href="http://peoplesmarchindia.blogspot.com/search/label/PEOPLESMARCH" rel="tag">PEOPLESMARCH</a> </span></p></div></div>Maoist movement in Indiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00295795462706790311noreply@blogger.com3