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Re : The police
say your claim that Mahesh, Shyam and Murali were shot is part of a propaganda
to discredit the State ....
G : Can you show
us a single instance in the last two decades when the police claimed the murders
of 2,000 of our comrades as anything else but encounters? Whenever there were
real encounters we always propagated them, hailing the heroism displayed by the
comrades who fell fighting to enemy forces. What would we gain by distorting
facts?
But for the State
there is no other choice. It has to invariably weave a net of lies in order to
cover up its fascist, unconstitutional and unlawful act. The very fact that the
State does not want to go for a judicial inquiry into the incident makes its
claim a complete hoax.
Even a layman can
easily realise the truth. The story that Comrades Shyam, Mahesh and Murali died
along with one Arun in a fierce encounter with the police in the Koyyur forest
of Karimnagar is an outright lie. It is the product of the Goebbels of Andhra
Pradesh, H J Dora [the director general of police], and his boss [Chief
Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu.]
To cover up the
cold-blooded murders these fascists are committing almost daily in AP, they are
unabashedly unleashing lies and malicious propaganda against our party. There is
ample proof for any unbiased person to be convinced that these comrades were
murdered according to a pre-hatched conspiracy. The Koyyur encounter is the
millennium lie of the World Bank stooge Naidu.
Re : Tell us what
happened.
G : The meeting
of December 1 in the house of Govinda Reddy alias Kameswar Rao in Bangalore was
planned last July. [The PW says Reddy was a Naxal who turned informer, and
that it was from his house that the leaders were picked up.] Our CC
secretariat [central committee secretariat] was to receive the decisions
taken at this meeting by the end of December. We had a contact with them.
Comrade Shyam had
returned from North Telangana at the end of October. He was in touch with other
CC members until November 30, the day before the incident. He spoke on the
mobile phone on the 30th night.
Comrade Mahesh left
the house of another comrade on the 30th night after finishing an article — a
review of the recent election in AP — and handing it over to the comrade. We
have the article with us written by the comrade and dated November 30.
Comrade Murali had
called up a comrade on 30th night while on his way to Bangalore from Guntur. He
had a lorry transport receipt with him booked on 30th to Pune, which the police
had taken and tried to trace the address. We warned the comrade in whose name
the parcel was booked not to collect it as the enemy would be keeping a watch on
the transport office.
Traitor Govinda Reddy
was not to be seen in his house in Bangalore from the day the comrades were
arrested. He was taken by the police to a safe place that very evening. We rang
up the owner of the house in which Govinda Reddy was residing the very next day
after hearing the news of the murders. We found that Reddy had locked the house
and left on the 1st evening itself.
Some journalists
belonging to The Hindustan Times, Indian Express and Vaarta
visited the house in Bangalore on the 9th or so and spoke to the owner, his son
and the neighbours. Though scared initially, they spoke of what happened after
some persuasion.
The owner’s son had
clearly seen two Maruti vans with armed men at the gate. Some went inside
Reddy’s house and took away the comrades after taping their mouths with plaster.
The neighbours were threatened with dire consequences if they talked. Part of
this report was published in The Hindustan Times on December 10/11.
The police threatened
the tenants and the owner again after the report appeared in the press. So, when
a fact-finding team went to the house on December 11 they refused to give
details. But after much persuasion they came out with the facts.
When these were
publicised the police went to the house again and issued threats. It worked this
time; they did not repeat what they said when an all-India fact-finding team
approached them on 23/24. That is the "democratic" way of silencing witnesses.
Re : What proof do
you have to support this?
G : The signs of
cruel torture seen on the bodies are a clear proof that they were arrested,
brutally tortured and then shot.
The fourth person
whom Dora tried to project as a squad member was actually arrested on November
30 from village Garjanapalli near the so-called site of encounter. He was shot
along with the other three in the early hours of December 2. His photo was
published in the papers and was recognised by his mother.
This shows that the
conspiracy was hatched well before the arrest of the comrades. The information
about the meeting in Bangalore was obtained by the AP police a few days before
from the collaborator, Govinda Reddy.
Even the story of the
encounter released by the police has been questioned by the media. So bad was
the script that one would wonder how the police could think anyone would believe
it. One cannot, of course, expect better stuff from pig-headed police brains.
For instance, it is
claimed that the exchange of fire took place for nearly five hours with our
guerrillas who were supposed to be around 30 in number. Even a layman would
wonder how such a fierce encounter could take place without the people of
surrounding villages, or the people moving on the road just a kilometre away,
hearing anything.
Moreover, whenever
there is an attack on us, the leaders are given protection by the guerrilla
squads. It is simply unthinkable that three important leaders were left to
defend themselves while squad members escaped to safety.
The story becomes
even more amusing when we come to know that not a single policeman was injured
in the long "exchange of fire"!
The fact that
reporters were not allowed to the so-called encounter site immediately after the
announcement by the police shows that they feared the truth would be exposed.
The government fears that the setting up of a high-level judicial inquiry [as
the PW and several non-government organisations have demanded] will place it
in the dock. Hence, it stubbornly refuses to accede to this demand.
Re : How important
were these leaders to your movement? What kind of void have they left?
G : The loss of
the comrades is no doubt a great blow to our party and the revolutionary
movement in India. All three were very senior members, with over two decades of
revolutionary life.
They made invaluable
contributions to the development and enrichment of the party’s political and
military line, its tactics and policies on various issues. They firmly and
consistently executed decisions.
They spent the most
part of their revolutionary lives in the areas of class struggle, amidst
guerrilla squads and the oppressed masses. They all were creative in their
thinking and practice while firmly adhering to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung
Thought. They were very simple and straightforward, never put on airs as
leaders, and were loved by the rank and file of the party and the masses.
Comrade Shyam joined
the movement as a full-time revolutionary a little before the Emergency,
sometime around 1974. He went underground with the declaration of the Emergency
in June 1975 and was arrested for the first time in 1986. He faced cruel torture
at the hands of the enemy, but did not let out a single secret. Though he
suffered the consequences of torture for the rest of his life, he was always in
the field, educating and guiding the cadres after he escaped from jail at the
end of 1988.
Comrade Mahesh was a
student leader of the Radical Students Union in 1978-79 in Osmania University.
He has been working as a full-timer since then. He was a member of the first
city committee of Hyderabad formed in 1981. He showed an exemplary spirit when
in jail during 1986-91.
He was a talented
organiser and a voracious reader. He always carried a bundle of books in his kit
when he was moving with the squads and used every moment to improve his
theoretical knowledge with the sole objective of applying it to the problems
confronting the Indian revolution.
Comrade Murali, the
youngest in the CC team, came into the movement as a student and youth leader in
1980-81. Since then he has been with the party in North Telangana and was the
darling of the masses. He had an exceptional emotional attachment with the
cadres and the masses.
Having spent all his
time in building the movement in Nizamabad and Telangana, he had a good grasp of
the problems and knew the pulse of the people. We thus lost long-standing
experienced leaders.
Re : Many claim
that the second-rung leadership has been wiped out with these killings. Is it
a fact?
G : That is a
figment of the imagination of the media and the police. First, I cannot
understand what you mean by second-rung leadership. In our party first-rung
leadership means the central committee. The second-rung leadership is the state
committees.
Our CC comprises
leaders who have more than two decades of experience in leading the class
struggle. Though the loss of the three comrades is serious, there are many
experienced comrades both in the CC and our state committees who are steeled and
tempered to take over. This is the great asset of our party.
Collective
functioning has developed to such an extent that loss of some comrades can never
lead to a void. There are able and dedicated comrades in the various state
committees who can be taken into the CC.
In the past too, we
have faced several difficult situations. We lost senior leaders like AP state
committee secretary, Comrade Puli Anjanna, in 1993, state committee member
Comrade Venkataswamy (Suryam) in 1994, state committee members comrades Prakash
Master, Mahendar, Damodar Reddy (Sanjeev), Reddappa, Malkpuram Bhaskar (Ramesh)
and others. But our losses were continuously replenished from the next rank, who
very soon developed into efficient leaders.
The revolutionary
movement constantly replenishes itself, finds able successors to the fallen
heroes — such is the dialectics of development of a revolutionary movement. New
blood is produced every moment. So long as we stick to the correct line and
adhere to the masses, new leaders are made continuously.
We may face some
difficulties whenever we lose some important leaders. There can even be setbacks
if we lose most of the leadership. But I can confidently say that it is not
possible for the State to completely wipe us out as our practice is based on
mass line. Leaders are being born continuously from the class struggle.
In the course of the
revolution, when we are waging war against an enemy very much superior to us in
strength and firepower, it is but natural that we face many losses. Our movement
develops through many ups and downs, many defeats, until we achieve final
victory. Such is the nature of our protracted war. The entire party is educated
about this. Hence, we can confidently face such losses, though producing such
leaders will take some time.
Re : How do you
propose to protest the loss of your leaders? Through violence?
G : The protests
are already on. Everyone can see the mood of the masses in the areas of our
struggle. Protests and retaliatory actions have taken place in several parts of
the country, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. The deep grief is being transformed
into burning class hatred of the class enemies.
Violence is only one
of the means to counter the reign of terror and brutalities inflicted by the
fascist regime on our movement. Our main emphasis is on involving more and more
people in the struggle. Our targets are feudalism, imperialism and comprador
bureaucrat capitalism, which are weighing down the Indian people.
Re : Who are your
immediate targets? What safeguards will you take to ensure that no civilian is
hurt in retaliatory attacks?
G : The immediate
targets are those who were involved either directly or indirectly in the
cold-blooded murder of our comrades. We know the names of some who led the
operation. We assure the grief-stricken party rank and file, the revolutionary
masses and the families of these comrades that their murders shall be avenged
even if it takes a bit of time. WE ALWAYS REPAY OUR BLOOD DEBTS TO THE ENEMY.
As regards civilian
casualties, we shall see that no civilian loses his life. This has always been
our policy. But unfortunate incidents have taken place. In the past six weeks [Ganapathy
answered this in the second fortnight of January] around 150 major protest
actions have taken place. There was only one incident in which some civilians
died as our comrades did not know that there were more people inside the house,
which they blasted after asking the inmates to come out. Our party has publicly
expressed its regret at the loss of innocent lives. We shall see that such
incidents do not recur.
Re : How long do
you think this wave of ‘repression’ will last? Can you elaborate on the
measures you would adopt to counter it?
G : We are under
no illusion that repression will come down. In fact, it will only be stepped up
further in a vain attempt to implement the imperialist-dictated policies of
globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation by the Indian ruling classes.
They know that the people will come out in massive protests against the policies
of the ruling classes, and it is imperative for the ruling class and their
imperialist mentors to suppress our party in order to make the impending
people’s upsurge leaderless.
But this fond hope of
theirs will be dashed to the ground. On the contrary, our strength lies
precisely in the people’s growing consciousness. Our CC has chalked out a series
of measures to counter the repression of the fascist state. They are in the
process of implementation and the results will be evident shortly.
Re : AP police
chief, H J Dora, accuses your organisation of mindless violence. He also says
the PW has ceased to take up "struggles on behalf of the people".
G : This is the
most common accusation against dedicated revolutionaries fighting for the
oppressed masses. In China too, at the time of revolution the communists were
branded as ‘red bandits’.
What is meant by
‘mindless violence’? The violence perpetrated by the goondas of the TDP
and the Congress in Rayalaseema causes the death of hundreds of innocent lives
every year. The violence perpetrated by the police goons of the goonda
chief H J Dora and [AP Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu] Naidu in the vast
rural tracts and cities of AP claimed over 600 lives in the past five years. Are
these not mindless violence?
When revolutionaries
kill an Umesh Chandra [an IPS officer] who had stained his hands with the
blood of at least 30 of our comrades, it is mindlessness to the Doras and his
likes!
Ours is a party
committed to the ideology of communism and our cadres and leaders live among the
oppressed masses, amidst terror unleashed by the ruling classes through their
mercenaries like Dora. The violence that we indulge in is only as a counter to
the mindless violence perpetrated day in and day out by the state’s mercenary
forces. Ask anyone on the street who they think are their enemies and the answer
you invariably get is: it’s the police.
Another amusing
statement made by the DGP is that we are not taking up struggles on behalf of
the people. As if the police chief has sympathy for people’s struggles! Then
what are we doing?
The fact is that we
have taken up more struggles in the past five years under the Telugu Dravida
Party rule than ever before. In AP alone, our party organised the people to
occupy 35,000 acres of land since 1995. That is the reason why Naidu had to
enact the drama of SC/ST corporations and other land reforms to dupe the masses.
Apart from land
struggles we had taken up struggles on several issues ranging from wage rates
for agricultural labour to remunerative prices for the middle and rich
peasantry. We took up scores of issues and mobilised lakhs of people. Or else,
what was the need to impose a ban on our party and mass organisations? What was
the need to stop us from holding even a small meeting?
I challenge Dora and
Naidu to allow our public meetings to take place without obstruction. Then they
will find how much is our mass base and how none of the reactionary parties
including that of the ruling TDP is a match before us in terms of mass support.
The reason why Dora and Naidu are making such propaganda about ‘mindless
violence’, ‘isolation from people’ and so on is to justify their policy of
continuing the ban on our party.
They want to justify
their terror tactics and their policy of treating our movement as a ‘law and
order’ problem to divert the people from the fact that it is the policies
pursued by the TDP in the state and the BJP-led government at the Centre that is
the cause for their misery and sad plight.
Re : Yours is an
organisation that chose the path of violence to achieve its goal. By picking
up the gun, you declared yourself outlaws. Isn’t it ironical then that now you
try to evoke the law of the country? Isn’t it ironical that your activists now
ask for inquiries and other remedies offered by a democracy?
G : A genuine
question indeed! We know there are quite a few people who think along these
lines. We know that what exists in the country is a sham democracy. This
democracy is only for the rich, propertied classes.
For the majority of
the poor there are hardly any rights. It is only by building up struggles that
they have achieved some rights. Thus it is the long-drawn struggles, bloody and
bloodless, that brought about whatever democracy there exists in the system. And
it is only through incessant struggle that they can defend and acquire more
rights. We recognise this fact. Naturally, we will utilise all that the people
have brought into being through their arduous struggle and innumerable
sacrifices.
But we also recognise
that the people cannot achieve their rights fully under this exploitative
system. It is only by overthrowing the system that they can achieve real
democracy. As long as they are allowed to conduct struggles legally without the
use of brute force by the state they will use it to further their rights. Once
their struggles are crushed with brute force, they have no other recourse but to
take up guns. That was how we too picked up the gun — not out of any
romanticism.
We do not have any
illusions on the undemocratic nature of the law of the country. We know that no
judicial enquiry will bring any justice. The fate of several commissions like
the Bhargava Commission is by now well-known.
Yet, we take up such
demands in order to expose the hypocrisy of the ruling classes who swear by
democracy and commitment to law. There is no contradiction at all in our
declaring that there is no democracy in the present system and in utilising each
and every opportunity to expose the system and to advance the movement.
Re : Internal feuds
have been part of every bloody revolution in the world. The PW too experienced
this [with the exit of Kondappalli Seetaramayya and Sathyamurthy]. In fact,
the killed leaders are said to have been in the process of rising against you
as they wanted more militarisation of the PW. Please comment.
G : This is only
a figment of your imagination. In general, there have been only enemy agents
within parties, not internal feuds. Infiltration by enemy agents is focussed as
internal feuds by the ruling classes.
Contrary to what you
imagine, our party has never experienced feuds. Feuds take place in reactionary
and counter-revolutionary parties that are always after power, which they seek
to acquire by any means. The palace coup of Chandrababu Naidu overthrowing his
own father-in-law and founder of the TDP, NTR, is a standard example of such
power-mongering feuds.
What our party has
experienced in the past, on the other hand, is a different thing. There has been
differences in political line in our party earlier in 1985-86 and 1991-92 when
the then secretaries of the party — Sathyamurthy in the earlier case and
Seetaramayya in the latter — created a crisis to cover up their own respective
weaknesses in leading the movement and their reluctance to take criticism.
The party then took
disciplinary action against them by first issuing a warning and then, when they
did not relent, by expelling them. The entire party stood as one though the top
leadership of the time betrayed them. Hence, it is unfair to term these internal
crises as internal feuds.
Moreover, in the
present context there are no differences of any significance in the CC contrary
to the police stories that have been circulating in the media. The entire CC is
united on every major question and has a unified thinking on how to advance the
people’s war. It would not be an exaggeration if I say that our party has never
been as united as at the present juncture.
Besides, most members
of the existing team which constitutes the present CC has a continuity since
1990 when the COC [central organising committee] was first formed,
especially from the end of 1991 when the present team successfully fought back
the disruptive activities of Seetaramayya’s anti-party clique. Over the years,
the team has developed a collective understanding and a unity of thought and
action on most matters.
I am proud to state
that the three martyrs were among our most dedicated practioners and outstanding
spokesmen of our political line.
Re : What progress
have you made since the Party Unity merger with the PW? Then, you had claimed
that it was a signal for more such mergers, but nothing seems to have come
about. Does it not prove, as the State claims, that the PW is weakening?
G : As we had
stated at the time of the merger, the unification of the two parties itself is a
significant development in the Indian revolutionary movement. The merger was
hailed by several revolutionary groups and individuals not only in India but
also abroad.
Since then quite a
few groups have shown interest in talks with the newly-merged party, for unity.
A few groups and individuals have come out of their respective parties and
expressed their willingness to join our party. There certainly has been some
polarisation in the Marxist-Leninist camp and we still hope that it will quicken
as our movement advances.
As far as the claims
of the State that we have weakened, I would only put one simple question: If the
PW has become weak, then why has the State been making frantic efforts to
increase the number of armed forces deployed against us?
Why was Bihar also
included in the Joint Co-ordination Committee of the four states (Andhra
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa), now increasing it to five? Why
are huge funds being provided by the Centre to the five states at a hectic pace?
And why are the ruling classes talking of a ban on our party all over the
country? Does not all these prove that our party has further strengthened after
the merger?
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