Shades of red 

In the latest issue of its weekly mouthpiece People’s Democracy, the CPI(M) engages in an ideological war of words with the Maoists. The lead editorial argues that the cause of the exploited and the marginalised was espoused by the CPI(M) and the Left parties and not by the Naxalites: “Contrary to the infatuated romantic description that Maoist influence is spreading because they espouse the cause of the most marginalised sections like the tribals, the truth is that control over administration of a territory provides substantial pecuniary as well as political power. This is the driving force behind much of their violent activities,” it says.

Questioning the ideology and the reach of the Maoists, it wonders where the Maoists were when many battles occurred against the ruling class policies and imperialism during the course of this decade. “Have the Maoists ever been seen, leave alone heard, to raise their voice on such vital matters?”  

“They are promoting a person to be the future chief minister of West Bengal who served as a cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government, remaining silent, thus implicitly supporting, the State-sponsored communal genocide in Gujarat. She is serving as a cabinet minister today in the Manmohan Singh government.  Such is the opportunism of the Maoist ‘class assault’ against the State,” it says.

“Today’s Maoists are the result of a partial reuniting of the hopelessly fragmented Naxalite groups following their split with the CPI(M) in 1967. Despite the experience of the last four decades, which vindicated the CPI(M)’s understanding that the bourgeois-landlord Indian ruling classes had a strong political and social base among the Indian people, the Naxal/Maoist groups continued with their earlier assessment.” 

... contd.