POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

Besides these movements on partial demands the party has mobilised the masses on various political issues. Dharnas, rasta rokos, public meetings have been held on - implementation of the Mandal Commission report, on support of the nationality struggles, on support of the minorities and against the destruction of the Babri Maszid, in support of Dalits and against the Dalit killings at Karamchedu and Chundur, and against womens’ oppression. Big agitations were taken against the New Economic Policies, against the GATT accord and the IMF and World Bank. Every year April 15 (the day the Dunkel accord was signed) is observed as anti-imperialist day. On that day, meetings, dharnas, processions are held in village after village and in many places effigies of Dunkel and PV Narasimha Rao have been burnt. Also, as a rule, in every area, every year: January 26 and August 15 are observed by hoisting black flags, wearing black badges and holding protest meeting against this fake independence; May 21st is observed as anti-repression day and December 6th as Black Day-against communalism. Also on every May Day the Red Flag is hoisted and celebrations are held and March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day.

One of the most important political struggles, right from the inception of the Party, has been the ‘boycott election’ campaign. During the surcharged atmosphere of the elections it has been the most effective time to carry the political programme of the Party and educate the masses on the need to negate this farcical democracy and take to the path of armed agrarian revolution for a truely New Democratic society. India, not having gone through a bourgeois democratic revolution, has a parliamentary scaffolding built around an autocratic semi-feudal, semi-colonial state structure. Parliament is used as an important weapon to pacify the masses, divert their attention from struggle and lead them astray. In India, participation in elections has no practical value whatsoever........ and this has now been proved by the electoral semantics of many a revolutionary group. They continue to flounder as marginal entities, while those boycotting and leading the armed struggle are a growing force.

The CPI (ML) originally, and then the CPI (ML) (PW), has continuously taken up wide ‘boycott election’ campaign during each election. Handbills, posters, street plays, song and dance programmes etc. , have been conducted on a huge scale, to educate the masses during each election......whether it is to the Lok Sabha, or the state assemblies or even the local gram panchayats. This campaign, so frightens the government, that during each successive election, it has been bringing in larger and larger police and para-military forces and resorting to intense repressive measures.

This particularly climaxed in the 1994 AP assembly elections when the government moved in 70, 000 para-military forces. During this brief period thousands of youth were rounded up and villagers were informed that if they did not vote, the arrested youth of their village would be killed. Suspected militants were publicly tortured and many were taken as human shields as the police rampage continued. Their message was simple - VOTE, or else....... Vote for any party, they would say, but vote you must !! Finally, during the election week itself, between November 27 and December 3, 1994, 36 comrades were killed in so-called ‘encounters’. But inspite of this terror the boycott campaign continued.

Today in many of the guerilla zone areas, elections to many Gram Panchayats have not taken place. There is no Sarpanch and much of the work of the erstwhile gram panchayats is being conducted by Village Development Committees under Party leadership.

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