November-December 1999

It was September 10th as we reached a small village in Kunta tehsil. With elections due on September 25th in this region, it was a period that ought to have witnessed the peak of the election campaign. But as we wound our way from village to village during the one month’s stay in the region the entire picture began to unfold : Hectic campaigning (for boycott) was being conducted only by the People’s War Party; no candidate of any party even entered the area. And as we traversed the region, radio Bhopal continued to blare out : Red Alert in Bastar; Borders sealed..... surveillance by two helicopters ... vast para-military force, NCC and homeguards being utilised to ensure ‘free and fair’ polling.

We covered the three squad areas of Kunta, Basaguda and Byramghad each covering about 100 to 150 villages (now, all a part of the new Dantewada district). Throughout the 100 kms covered, the story seemed the same as we spoke to the ordinary villagers.... Elections, they said, had no relevance to their lives, as whoever got elected (Congress, CPI, BJP have all come as ‘representatives’) there has been no development whatsoever over the past 50 years.... not only that, they had to face the daily terror and loot of forest officials, the village elders (Sarpanch, Patels, etc.,), the traders and all officials. Development, they claimed, only began after the arrival of the PW squads — first they suppressed the looters, and now they are helping us in our own development.... from literacy, sports and medicine, to organising the construction of dams, lakes, wells etc.

It is Dabbakunta village of Kistaram Range. Over 800 people are gathered from 12 villages. The meeting is being run by the local chairman of the DAKMS (peasant organisation) Range Committee. Present at the meeting were not only villagers but also hostel students, teachers, health workers, etc. It began with a procession with banners, placards and slogan-shouting. The speeches were interspersed with songs — one on election boycott. It was a festive occasion. We wondered how such big meetings were taking place in an area earmarked as ‘Red Alert’. We were informed that not a word leaves the villages and anyhow the enemy only patrols the main roads. Besides, as added caution, villagers and GRD (village defence units) had been posted at various points as sentries.

We witnessed similar meetings in Polachelma, Guchannpalli, Bellamgonda, Kommampadu and Dokpadda. All were meetings involving 5 to 10 villages. All had large number of women present and was being conducted by the respective DAKMS range committee member.

As we moved on to Kunta Range similar meetings took place in Gorkha (8 villages), Askeyvayya (10 villages), Elladmadgu (7 villages), Maraigudda (12 villages) run by the local range committee members and in Gompadu the meeting was held by the LGS (Local Guerilla Squad).

DVC (Party Divisional Committee) member in-charge of Kunta Squad Area, Com. Ramanna (Narendra), explained the nature of the boycott campaign. He said that these central meetings, by Range Committee members (DAKMS), were taken at large villages that were polling centres. Prior to this, two day classes were conducted for each of the three Range committees. One full day went in explaining the Party’s stand on boycott, the CC circular, and the slogans that should be carried. 400 copies of the DKSZC (Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee) pamphlets were given and explained. After this class the campaign took off. Besides these central meetings by the RCs, village-level meetings were held by the squads themselves, while conducting their usual organisational activity. In addition, the local CNM (Chaitanya Natya Manch) cultural troupe spent a fortnight-long campaign focussing on the boycott. Finally, specific campaign batches were formed to cover 5 to 6 villages under their jurisdiction. In Kunta squad area 17 such batches of men were formed and 3 of women (comprising 5 to 7 members each). In addition, 60 banners and 370 posters were put up at the main centres. The Kunta CGS even entered Kunta town (where there is a police camp) and took meetings. Finally, an intensive campaign was repeated in the 5 days prior to the elections.

Here seven central public meetings were held in the three ranges along the same pattern as those held in Kunta. In a village in Jaggargonda range, 15 villages were involved and about 1000 people attended. Also in a village in Pamed range, 1000 people attended from 15 villages. In the other major meetings 6 to 10 villages were involved with 350 to 500 people attending.

In the Basaguda squad area, the Platoon (PL2) actively participated along with the local squad in the boycott campaign. Com. Gopanna, DVC secretary, who accompanied the platoon, reported on the nature of the boycott campaign. He said in the seven central meetings, of the 4000 people who attended, 1000 were women. In one such major meeting, DAKMS divisional president, Poona Masa explained the need to boycott; this was followed by speeches by Range committee members, and finally by Com. Gopanna who explained the CC circular and SZC pamphlet.

Here too the campaign was preceded by holding day-long classes not only for the three DAKMS range committees but also for one KAMS (womens organisation) range committee. Then 15 campaign batches were formed involving 100 youth — 70 male and 30 female. These covered in all 100 villages divided according to the specific areas of responsibility of each range committee member. In addition the local CNM cultural troupe campaigned in 60 villages with not only songs but also a play on the election. Then, the CGS (Central Guerilla Squad) campaigned in 30 villages, while the platoon in 12 villages. The Platoon, before holding the meeting, held marches, and saluted the people. Besides, the squad/Platoon held separate meetings with teachers, youth, employees and journalists from the small towns and explained the party’s stand on elections. Also meetings of the village elders (most of whom have surrendered before the people’s strength) were held, the party view-point explained, and were warned not to vote. Besides, 25 banners and 200 posters were put up in main centres and 500 pamphlets distributed as far as Jagdalpur. In Basaguda town, where a police camp exists a GRD team put up posters and banners, shouted slogans and distributed handbills, before disappearing into the forest.

Here too after educating the Range Committees of Byramgad squad area in the three ranges, 23 campaign batches were formed. This involved 100 people with KAMS batches of 5 members each and DAKMS of 7 members. Central meetings were also held, as in Pandum, involving seven villages and 350 people. DVC member, Com. Ganesh, said that in addition to this campaign the CNM local cultural troupe did a fortnight-long campaign and the squad did propaganda in 40 villages. In addition meetings were called of the town youth and teachers, and both the sarpanches and block members were warned not to assist the electoral machinery. A decision had been taken for the GRDs to burn down propaganda offices of the political parties set up on the main road.

A similar pattern was reported in the other three squad areas of South Bastar, with some local variations. In Malkangiri Squad Area (Orissa) 6 batches of KAMS were formed and 5 of DAKMS. ‘Voice’ — a wall paper — was also used to propagate the boycott. In the National Park area an added factor, was the creation of an all-women squad (LGS) which propagated in 17 villages. In the Madded squad area, which was facing stiff repression, propaganda had to be more discreet.

After the 25th, as we moved from village to village we got continuous reports of zero voting. In most areas even the sarpanches, patels and gurujis (teachers) had refrained from voting. In fact in many places, the polling booths wound up by the afternoon, while the stipulated time should have been 5 p.m. In some places the polling booths did not even reach the village. For example, in Taren village, not a single vote was cast and the oficials took away the booth at 3-00 p.m. In Puvarti too, not a vote was cast, and the booth was removed by 1 p.m. In Tomoda the booth did not reach. In Pidia polling centre not a vote was cast, while the officials that took another booth to neighbouring Undri village, returned to Pidia (with the booth) within an hour. In Jod-Jod village the CNM troupe reached the morning before the polling date and put on a performance. The same afternoon the polling officials arrived with a booth. Thinking that a squad was present, they immediately fled the village and reported to the nearest police station. The police arrived in the village, threatened the villagers, who refused to disclose anything. The next day the polling officials did not reach. Generally, the police either accompanied polling officials in large groups of 20 or 30, or did not go at all. In most interior areas, fearing ambush by PW guerillas, the police did not even attempt to accompany the officials. Besides these on-the-spot observations, we were later told by DVC members that in 80% villages in which the PW works, there would be zero voting; while in the rest it would not go beyond 5%.

This was the ground reality. But what was the official news ? The September 30th issue of ‘Dandakaranya Samachar’ reported a series of interviews where villagers apparently did not vote out of ‘fear’ of naxalites cutting off their fingers. Worse still, of the numerous polling centre details published, in two villages which we personally visited the results reported were astounding. In both Silgeer and Puvarti not a single vote had been cast, yet the paper reported 156 votes (out of 615) for Silgeer and 150 votes (out of 591) for Puvarti. In another village, Fusbakka, where we were told not a single person voted, ‘Dainik Bastar’ (October 2, ’99) reported that of the 1170 votes 961 had been cast — 82%. Here the BJP candidate publicly complained of rigging by the ruling Congress party. Of course, in Bastar, rigging was not as systematic as in Telangana, where the police force itself rigs in favour of the TDP. Here it depended more on pliant polling officials. In fact, even areas on the fringe of the movement in South Bastar recorded low turnouts — Penta had zero votes recorded and Millianpalli only 40. Inspite of this rigging, the official voter turnout was the lowest in MP, at 32%.

The election boycott campaign was a mass education campaign to reject the existing system and to build the alternative revolutionary organs of power. This had been detailedly elucidated in a pamphlet brought out by the DKSZC (dated August 9, ’99) and widely distributed in the area.

The boycott campaign in South Bastar is an example of the CPI(ML)[People’s War]’s boycott campaign throughout the country, no doubt with local variations. To counter the PW’s effective boycott campaign in the country the government has been on a high profile propaganda campaign to negate the effectivity of the PW’s poll boycott call. First, they propagated widely, that in Bihar the PW was supporting the RJD and in AP they were supporting the Congress (I). Then, specifically in Telangana, it was widely propagated to have reported the highest voting (at 61%). No doubt, this was to prove the ‘ineffictivity’ of PW’s poll boycott call. But in AP, and specifically in Telangana, the entire state machinery is mobilised in high-tech manner, to combine brutal repression with sophisticated rigging in favour of the TDP. This has the twin effect of getting elected imperialism’s chief stooge and also discrediting the PW.

In fact, in this 13th Lok Sabha election, not only was there a systematic boycott by the PW, MCC, in Kashmir and the entire North East, but also vast sections of the masses boycotted the elections over their local demands, or out of total frustration of the farce being enacted. Slowly, the masses are beginning to realise that the only real alternative to this existing system and the electoral farce is achieving area-wise seizure of political power through people’s war. The armed struggles of Dandakaranya, North Telangana and Bihar are a living alternative before the people.

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