By Anirudh Prakash
One cannot expect that Maosim or Marxism-Leninism will follow the same path, or have the same paradigmatic structure in all countries, as experimenting with ideologies primarily depends on the demographic, economic and cultural variables and realities. But the fact is after 45- years of its birth the Naxalite movement is still in search of a compatible ideological format and a strong peoples’ base to accomplish its task. The ideological polemics and analysis of the character of the state have obliterated.
The movement appears to be in bind. Paradoxically 40 odd Naxalite factions are more akin to small grocery shops in the villages. They are content to sale grocery items on barter basis to the poor villagers, denied of a viable purchasing power. This is manifestation of lack of political-economic urgency to combat the neo liberal economy.
This lack of urgency has systematically been eroding the Naxalite ideology. The most interesting development in recent months has been drawing a dividing line between Maoism and Marxism-Leninism (M-L). While the state machinery applies a single yard stick to club them together, Maoists are unwilling to accept M-L as a revolutionary outfit on the plea they have deviated from the revolutionary line and have become a part of the parliamentary politics.
This situation has put the leadership and the rank and file in the state of amnesia. They are caught between two confusing scenario; state repression and indifferent leadership. The fall out is visible on the ground level. Never before during the 45- year of Naxalite movement such large number of Naxalites or Maoists have surrendered or were arrested as was witnessed during last one year in Bihar and Jharkhand; the region which gave a new dimension to the Naxalite movement in seventies. Not less than two dozens of hard core activists, mainly of the rank of commanders (zonal commanders, sub zonal commanders) and state level leaders besides hundreds of cadres laid their arms. The statement of sub zonal commander of Sone-Ganga-Vindhyachal zone, Sudama Oraon provides an insight in recent happenings. He and his 21 comrades were enlightened due to the kindness of the police chief of Rohtas. He said “we have seen enough of the naxalite double standard. Now we want to leave our past behind and join the mainstream”. They made no secret that they were disenchanted with their top leadership.
Most of those surrendered naxalites nurse the view that the guerrilla actions do not conform to the basic concept of Guerrilla Warfare. In most of the cases the whim of the leadership prevails over the ground realities. They often ignore Mao Zedong’s ideological spirit. They are also aggrieved at the reluctance of the leadership to follow the path of political mobilisation of the general mass. They find it hard to justify recent guerrilla actions as in most of the cases no class enemy was at the target.
Ground level cadres and operatives also nurse the view that Andhra Pradesh centric leadership lacks the basic knowledge of other states. Wide ranging disagreement persists within the top leadership on the issue of territory and funds. Most of the leaders in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhatisgarh are feeling isolated. What is interesting is factional stakes are visible even within the territories.
The current phase of decline in rebellion would have acquired further momentum, had the governments of these states not gone back on their promises made to the naxalites. In fact the state governments’ failure to keep their promises- provide free education to their children, monetary help, rehabilitation and offering livelihood opportunities- has proved to be dampener for those willing to surrender. Majority of the surrendered naxalites are having introspection; they are feeling disenchanted and planning to go back to party fold. Some of the naxalites who actually did not indulge in violent actions but were implicated in naxalite related cases are sceptical. Even after their surrender the cases against them have not been closed. Naturally the court will send them to jails. At least by joining the rebel ranks they were free; they were not in prison. But once the verdict comes out they have no alternative but to languish in jails.
Significantly the Nitish Kumar government’s “Shikaria Model”, a mechanism to bring back the Maoists into the mainstream has caught the imagination of the naxalite leaders. Shikaria a village in Jehanabad, the region which witnessed worst massacres in seventies and eighties between Naxalites and Ranavir Sena, is the birth place of MKSS which had launched the revolutionary movement for change. After coming to power, Nitish instead of using repressive mechanism to curb the movement, handed over the development funds to the Maoists. They were to identify the priorities and undertake the development. The naxalite who used to collect levies from local bigwigs are getting the funds from the government. Close relatives of the naxalites have turned contractors. During last seven years the region has not witnessed any naxalite action. They are also sing this money to finance their operations in other parts of the
Some of the surrendered rebels feel that the governments, the bureaucrats and police do not have an objective insight of the problem. Operations against the naxalites are multi crore affair; they fetch huge funds. They point out how some top police officials misused government funds in the name of combating naxalism. In fact administrative arrogance has helped the Maoists spread their influence. INAV