3,000 ex-Maoists line up to join Chiranjeevi’s party

22 Feb 2009, 0840 hrs IST, TNN
Source: Times of India
HYDERABAD: Hundreds of former naxalites, who jettisoned the Maoist movement in the last ten years, will join the Prajarajyam Party on February
24.

According to party sources, around 3,000 former militants of various factions of the CPI (ML) and CPI (Maoist) will join the newly-floated party in Hyderabad in the presence of PRP chief Chiranjeevi and Yuvarajyam president Pavan Kalyan.

This was the culmination of around six months of hardwork to mobilise the former rebels and bring them into PRP. The association of Marxist-Leninist singer Gadar and other pro-naxal intellectuals with the actor are said to have coordinated the move.

First meeting of the former naxalites was organised in Guntur in December last attended by over 800 people. The meeting was addressed by Dr P Mitra, party’s senior leader.

“In fact we wanted to organise a meeting in each district. But, due to logistic reasons and lack of time, a state-level meeting is planned in Hyderabad on February 24,” former People’s War activist I Satyanarayana told STOI.

Satyanarayana, a native of Guntur, was a member of the erstwhile Radical Youth League. He quit the extremist organisation due to personal reasons. “Even though thousands of people left the movement long ago they are not able to lead a peaceful life because of the hostile attitude of the police and lack of support from the government. So, they feel only PRP can restore a sense of security among them,” Satyanarayana said.

Now Naxals have a blog too!

From Veerendra P M, DH News Service, Shimoga:

The Naxal discourse of the State has found new space in blogosphere. Titled http://www.rcpkarnataka.blogspot.com, the blog presents details about the evolution of Maoist movement in the State, its strategies and split in the movement. Though there are a number of blogs on Maoist struggle across the world, rcpkarnataka is the first blog which is dedicated for discussion about the movement in the State.

The blog is promoted by Revolutionary Communist Party Karnataka, the breakaway faction from CPI (Maoist) Karnataka. The blog has interesting discussion about the reason for the split in the Naxal movement in the State. Though a section of party activists raised pertinent questions about hierarchies in party structure, but a discussion on the same was not allowed. The promoters of the blog said that absence of inner-democracy in the party resulted in the split.

The document ‘Our work in urban areas’ prepared by CPI(ML) (people’s war) of Andhra Pradesh in 2001 was immediate reason for the split of party’s Karnataka unit. According to 2001 census only 27.8 percent (35 crore) of the Nation’s population reside in rural areas. Urban areas contribute 60 percent of the GDP at present which is likely to increase in coming days. Taking the census report as referral point, a section of workers felt that party should consolidate its base in urban areas.

When the issue was neglected, they came out of the party and formed Karnataka Maoist Independence Centre an ad hoc body which was later renamed as Revolutionary Communist Party Karnataka in August 2007.

Introducing history

The blog presents details of the evolution of Maoist struggle in the State. According to a posting, Karnataka unit of CPI (Maoist) was formed in the year 1980 in Bangalore, open revolutionary magazine released in 1983, human rights organisations formed in 1984 and PRs (professional revolutionaries) were recruited next year. After failure to establish base in Raichur, party recognised Malnad as perspective area and in the year 2001, 25 comrades were sent to Malnad.

The blog states that RCP Karnataka wants to re-orient and re-organise the urban work with long-term strategical approach. RCP wants to establish base in urban areas through secret and open revolutionary mass organisations and legal democratic organisations. The blogspot also discusses in detail about the importance of media management to reach the mass. RCP has decided to mobilise large chunk of work force in unorganised sector (including those in ITES/BPO) in its favour.

RCP has also analysed the reasons of failure of Maoist struggle in the State. According to a posting in the blog, choosing Malnad as perspective area was strategic goof up as though Malnad’s topography favoured guerrilla warfare but the region was relatively developed with people growing commercial crops. RCP is also critical about Venkatammanahalli incident in which group of armed Maoists had opened fired on police. According to RCP any military action needs political justification but there was no strong justification for Pavagada incident due to which party was disgraced in the eyes of the public.

The blog has several links like kranthiya gathitarka, kalachida kondiya beseyuva prayatnadalli and others. RCP has underscored the need for going tech-savvy in coming days and foraying into the blogosphere seems to be first step in this regard.