Volume 4, No. 4-5, April-May 2003

In Nepal it has been reported that the CPN-UML has struck a secret deal with the genocidal Gyanandra/Deuba clique and the Indian Expansionists, to be used as the front paw of the military regime to pit the so-called Reds against the CPN (M). The UML is now hoping to take power in the fake elections, to be held in Nov.2002, under the umbrella of the Emergency. What is developing is a fascist Gyanandra/Deuba-UML axis.

Over the last two months the West Bengal media has been continuously filled with articles/reports about the fascist repression unleashed by the CPI (M) on the activists and sympathizers of the CPI (ML)(PW). The media has been comparing it with the brutal methods used by the Siddarth Shankar Ray’s Congress government in the early 1970s. The media also speaks of the warming of relations between the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the Union Deputy Prime Minister and Hindu fascist megalomaniac, L.K.Advani.

Both the UML and the CPM put on a progressive mask, not only in the sub-continent, but throughout the world, posing as leftists. But as class contradictions sharpen the mask is falling and they are getting nakedly exposed as the social-fascists that they are - i.e. socialism in words, fascism in deeds. It is important for all progressive forces to understand the character of such parties, or else movements against reaction that include them, are likely to get stabbed in the back by such treacherous elements.

Right from the beginning of the people’s war in Nepal the CPN-UML has played an anti-people role. They have also continuously supported the State of Emergency declared in Nepal.

After the Dang attack, when the Deuba government declared the Emergency, the UML was in favour of it. Three months later, when it had to be ratified, the UML again voted in favour of it.

The Emergency has to be ratified every six months by parliament. When this was due to be ratified earlier this year, the UML resorted to duplicity, not disclosing its decision till the last. It is only after the bulk of the Nepalese Congress, led by Koiralla, refused to extend it, and the Deuba group within it was reduced to a handful of members, that the UML made a pretense of opposing the Emergency. But when the Deuba/Gyanendra clique resorted to the constitutional coup, dissolving parliament, re-imposing the Emergency and announcing elections for Nov.13, it was the UML who was the first to jump into the fray.

Given the fact that the Deuba group was a hopeless minority, it appears that it was only with the knowledge of the UML’s tacit support that the king and Deuba got confidence to push through their parliamentary coup-de-ta. It appears that the UML is being groomed by the clique to take power after Nov.13.

In addition, the UML has been undertaking a massive espionage campaign against CPN(M)
cadres thus abetting in the killing torturing and incarcerating carried out by the Gyanendra clique. Infact the recent killing of Rit Bahadur Khadka , an alternative central committee member of CPN(M) by the Gyanendra clique was the result of the UML’s dirty hand.

This possibility is strengthened by the fact that they have also received the support of the Indian expansionists. Recently, the head of the UML, Madhav Nepal, was received in India, with the same honours as a ruling dignitary. He was met by Advani, Vajpayee and others and assured that they had no problem if he took power after Nov.13. The conspiracy is further deepened by the fact that the US ambassador to Nepal was invited to the UML office at Katmandu, where he arrived to a spruced up headquarters, with the photos of Marx, Engels, Lenin, conveniently removed for the occasion.

So, from all this, one can clearly presume that the Gyanandra/Deuba clique, the Indian Expansionists and the US imperialists are planning to bring in the UML to use the fake ‘red flag’ to fight the Red Flag. It is clear that the UML has metamorphosed from mere revisionists to social-fascists.

The repression unleashed by Buddha’s police is reminiscent of the dark days of the 1970’s where the midnight knock meant brutal torture and gruesome murders of some of India’s most dedicated and talented youth.

The arrests and killing of PW activists, sympathisers and ordinary villagers of Midnapore and the recent arrest and brutal torture of a PW leader, some ex-members and a vast cross-section of progressive intellectuals, in and around Calcutta, Nadia and other areas, indicates that the CPI (M) is little different from Naidu’s TDP or the fascist BJP.

Since Sept. last, the CPI (M) has brought to Midnapore two crack CRPF companies, which have been trained in counter-insurgency operations in North Telangana. They have unleashed a reign of terror over and above that of the CPI (M) mafia of the region. They have resorted to day and night combings, arrests, tortures etc. They have shot dead a number of PW activists in the region and have been harassing ordinary villagers.

Over 350 villagers have been arrested, of which 26, whom the police consider as activists, have been booked in far-away Siliguri, in a method similar to that adopted by Sidharth Shankar Ray in the early 1970s. Till today they have not been granted bail. It is feared that once the proposed preventive detention law, POCO, is passed, many will be booked under that. The CPM is continuing to send more and more Special Forces to these areas to crush these people’s movements with an iron hand. Such forces are being sent to 12 districts of West Bengal. Bail applications are being rejected since last August, everyday new persons are being implicated in false cases, and they are being terrorized to stop associating with the PW and MCC. The repression against villagers continues unabated. From Aug 12 onwards the police have concentrated their attacks in the Nadia-Murshidabad districts. At the time of writing this letter the attacks have been going on .they have also been arresting RSP activists in this area and TMC activists in Midnapur area, in preparation for the Gram Panchayat elections due in May 2003. To suppress the Maoists all are alike, but, due to their power-struggle the CPM does not even spare the parliamentary opposition.

On June 20, State Committee member, Com. Gautam and another, arearrested. Com. Gautam was seriously tortured by the police. Even after two months since his arrest he was still in the Midnapur police lines hospital. No interview was permitted. His legs and hands were fractured. This was followed by the arrest of those four who had left the PW a few months back. After 10 days in police custody they finally got jail custody on July 2.

It was from July 4 that the police began their mid-might raids on over 75 intellectuals in and around Calcutta and later in Nadia. The arrest and torture of Kaushik Ganguly, professor of Rajabazar Science College, and Abijit Sinha, central excise officer, is an indication of the extent of police ruthlessness.

According to family members, Abijit was pulled out of bed, dragged down the stairs and taken to Baguihate Police station. He was humiliated, threatened and intensely interrogated. The shrill cries of several other suspects being tortured in the next room, haunted him for days. He was only released once his wife, Manasi reached the police station along with her father, who himself is a senior police officer - DSP (crime) - in the CID. Traumatized by the experience, on July 7, the 32-year old Abijit, threw himself under a train, committing suicide. Manasi said, "the police are behind my innocent husband’s death". His father-in-law, though a senior police officer, has threatened to take the case to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

They were also isolated from their own left front partners, like the RSP, FB and CPI, who have also condemned the CPM’s methods. Not only that, a section of CPM cadre and district-level leaders have not been supporting their government’s methods and have been openly criticizing them. To suppress their voice, the CPM leadership issued a circular to their cadres to refrain from talking openly against the decisions taken regarding PW/MCC affairs, and that serious action would be taken if anyone violated this.

Teachers, students, employees have taken to the streets to protest against the wide arrests and torture of Ganguly, Sinha and the others. Human rights organizations, civil liberty groups, ex-naxalite leaders and even the major parliamentary opposition have raised their voice.

On July 7, teachers from Calcutta University submitted a letter to the Chief Minister demanding Ganguli’s immediate release. On the same day several college teachers, research scholars and Ganguly’s students camped in Midnapore town, where the professor had been kept in the police lock-up. They protested against the torture of Ganguly and said the police should not misbehave with a brilliant scholar and professor.

The crackdown, led to all the M-L groups uniting under a common umbrella orgainsation, the Bandimukt Prashiti Samiti, which demanded the immediate release of all arrested. It also prepared a list of 300 persons arrested, for their alleged links with the PW, mainly from Midnapore, Bankura and Purnia. The Committee leader, Imanual Haque, alleged that the police planned to book all the 300 under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, once it was enforced.

On July 8, 17 teachers of the Calcultta University and 75 teachers of BE College (deemed University), Shibpur, in two separate letters to the Chief Minister demanded Ganguly’s release and punishment of the tortured.

All major teachers unions, except the rabid CPM sponsored West Bengal College and University Teacher’s Association, have come out in protest against Ganguly’s detention. The Jhadavpur University Teachers Association criticized the "brash treatment" by the police of Ganguly. Its general secretary, Tarun Kanti Naskar said, "The manner in which Ganguly was taken from his house and the atrocities he is facing in police custody directly violates the fundamental rights of a citizen".

All Bengal University Teacher’s Association also reacted strongly to Ganguly’s case. Deepak Bannerjee, a senor member of ABUTA said both JUTA and his union members wrote a protest letter to the chief Minister.

Writers Mahashweta Devi, Sankho Ghosh, Joy Goswami, and actor Soumitra Chatterjee signed a Public Charter against intimidation and torture in police custody. APDR general secretary, Sujato Bhadra, said, "We have lodged complaints with the NHRC and the Amnesty International. We are organizing a protest march from College Street to Rani Rashmoni Road".

On July 9, the APDR also met Hoogly SP and lodged an FIR against the Midnapore (West) Policemen who raided some houses in Uttarpara on the 5th and arrested three youth for their alleged links with the PW. A protest rally was taken out by the APDR in Hoogly against the police action, which was joined by leaders of the Forward Block and CPI.

On July 11 both the TMC (Trinamool Congress) and the Congress (I) moved a no-confidence motion against the Left Front government and staged a walk-out in protest against the "fascist path chosen by the LF govt., as the arrest of Ganguly and others showed". A section of the CPI, RSP and the SUCI made strongly remarks on the Abijit Affair. The Left Front partners RSP, FB and CPI demanded a front meeting to stop the "return of the police raj of the early 70s". FB leaders said, "The police brutality is alarming and should be dealt with firmly at the political level. The PW’s penetration of the tribals and poor in remote areas shows our failure to reach them". Some MLAs demanded a judicial enquiry, which was refused by the Chief Minister.

In the face of all this criticism the Chief Minister and CPM state leadership were adamant. They refused a judicial enquiry and the State Committee asked the police to step up the campaign against the PW, terming it an ‘extremist’ organization. They warned their LF partners and their rank-and-file to tone down their criticism. In fact Left Front chairman, Biman Basu, was scathing in his attack on those critical of the repression campaign. The Chief Minister in fact sent crack forces to Midnapore and openly stated that there will be no let-up in these raids and arrests of PW sympathisers.

The CPI(M) uses a twin policy to maintain their rule - fascist terror in the vast countryside by their organized goons, backed by the police, and a more democratic image in the urban areas, to maintain their progressive image. In West Bengal it has the following background:

As the Panchayat system took deep root in the soil of rural West Bengal and the tentacles of the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ spread to the vast countryside, the vested interests of the new privileged sections got more strengthened and the party machinery grew more and more reactionary and aggressive. It is like a new zamindari system based on the party. The party offices are the court-yards of the new zamindaris. The party’s local committee secretary and panchayat pradhans (chief) are the new zamindars. They control everything and keep a watch on everybody. Party cadres and panchayat members are their eyes and ears. They serve both as their intelligence network and their arm-twisting machinery. If anyone becomes disobedient, does something independently or tries to organise people clandestinely, immediately a report goes to the party office and decisions will be taken according to the situation. The party bosses will fix the extent of ‘punishment’ according to the level of disobedience.

In the cities they cannot exercise such ruthless control. They cannot threaten people here at their sweet will or terrorise them with naked attacks. The people in cities are more organised and incidents of attack get wide coverage in the media. So, in the cities CPM terror is more refined, their behaviour more polished, their domination more subtle. The dose of social terror is more limited here in comparison to the rural areas. The CPM has pursued this dual policy in West Bengal for the last 20 years: on the one hand keep an apparent democratic atmosphere in the cities (even at the risk of losing elections here), and on the other, strengthen their grip on the countryside through all sorts of naked terror. Hence the villages are the real face of Left Front rule, whereas the cities are its mask.

In the rural areas the CPM maintain a social-fascist-type control over the lives of the entire population. No one dare oppose their dictates. If any family or group begin to oppose the CPM diktat they are first threatened, then beaten, then socially boycotted; and if they persevere with their opposition their properties are smashed, women are raped and many are even killed. They maintain a systematic spy network, and those suspect are watched an all those visiting them are observed. Through the Panchayats, which have become virtual CPM fiefdoms, they control every aspect of the life of the people - from dispensing work, giving jobs, distributing land, to even issuing ration cards and birth certificates, everything has to be passed by the local CPM bosses. Anyone who is in disfavour, can be starved and hounded into servility to the bosses. These Panchayats are also centers of nepotism and corruption. Besides, the CPM maintain links with the village mafia and lumpens, to terrorise the masses, particularly during elections and also to forcibly collect donations.

Besides, there is a strong and close nexus between the CPM leadership/cadre and the police against the people and now the revolutionaries of the PW and MCC. Of late, the atrocities of this combine have been spiraling. The growing police atrocities on the peoples are ignored by the CPM, while the two combine into a joint force against the revolutionaries.

Against the people, the West Bengal Human Rights Commission has documented police atrocities. Its report says that in the last three years, from 1999 to 2002, there were over 210 deaths in police/judicial custody, 214 cases of custodial rape/molestation of women, just under 2,000 cases of police excesses and 175 cases of ‘jail misadministration incidents’. The most recent incident was the ‘black hole’ tragedy of Aug.1 at Malda, where the police rounded up 242 men and crammed them into a 20ft by 3ft lock-up to await court hearings. By evening 2 undertrials had died of suffocation and several others lay unconscious. Most of them had been detained for minor offences. A similar incident occurred in the same month in a Kolkata lock-up, when two groups broke into a fight over drinking water in a stifling lock-up. What is worse is that the incidences of custodial death, torture and rape by the West Bengal police are growing by the day.

Against the revolutionaries, a large number of CPM cadres have been transformed into police informers. A recent circular of the CPM State Committee called on its cadres to: observe all, keep an eye on who are coming and who are going; inform the police on the activities of the PW and MCC; and join with the police to launch attacks on them. In addition, the State government is instigating its own cadres against the Maoists, is demanding more forces for counter-insurgency operations; seeking to re-introduce the draconian POCO (the West Bengal version of POTA) and increasing the terror on the masses in the regions of Maoist influence. West Bengal has also joined the Joint Coordination Committee set up by Advani to coordinate counter-insurgency operations against the Maoists in the various states.

The CPM and its West Bengal government have adopted a similar attitude towards the Nationality Movements in the State and have supported the monarchy against the Maoists of Nepal. It is assisting the rulers of Nepal and the Indian Expansionists, by stepping up policing along the lengthy borders between Nepal and West Bengal to nab the Maoists of Nepal.

Lies, falsehoods and a disinformation campaigns have always been the staple stock of the CPM against the Maoists, from the very inception. For two-and-half decades after the brutal massacres of the early 1970s the revisionists have ruled West Bengal like a fiefdom. No opposition was allowed to grow and the CPM storm-troopers (backed by the police) would ruthlessly crush any opposition, even that of its own let-front partners. The APDR has, in fact, documented 7,000 cases of political killings in West Bengal since the Left Front came to power, and has demanded of the government to hand over the medical reports of such cases to the Centre for Culture for Care and Torture of Victims.

We, the constituent members of the CCOMPOSA, appeal to all genuine democrats and progressive people to expose these two parties, the CPN-UML and the CPI(M), and mobilize public opinion against them. It is necessary to understand that revisionism is nothing but the bourgeoisie amongst the working class. And when these revisionists become ruling-class parties, like the UML and the CPI (M), they must act as any other ruling-class party. This is particularly manifested when class contradictions become acute. The extraction of profits, whether through private capital or through state enterprises, are their goal. Besides, with a strong cadre force, they are ideally suited to unleash fascist repression, utilizing their social base. At most their ‘struggle’ with other ruling parties is part of the contradictions within the ruling-classes and has no progressive element about it. There is a fundamental necessity to expose the leadership of these parties and seek to win over the rank-and-file to the path of genuine struggle against reaction and for a new society.

We request comrades from the international community and in South Asia to visit Nepal and West Bengal to investigate the facts for themselves. We request you to undertake a campaign in your own countries exposing how the UML and the CPM are attacking the Maoists of the two countries. We request you to write open letters to the rank-and-file of these parties, asking them to call upon their leaders to stop these attacks.

Comrades and Friends,

Today, when imperialism, particularly US imperialism, is increasing its offensive against the people all over the world there is utmost urgency to unite with all democratic and progressive forces to build a wide mobilization against this attack. While doing so one has to beware of the fake ‘friends of the people’ who seek to dissipate these movements into ‘safe’ channels, or put up mock opposition as a safety valve to diffuse the growing anger of the people. No consistent struggle against imperialism and reaction is possible without thoroughly exposing these betrayers and traitors within the working-class movement, who seek merely to stab it in the back.

In this period of growing imperialist crisis the opportunities are immense. But to effectively seize the opportunity it is necessary to clearly demarcate between genuine friends and real enemies. Let us unite ever more strongly with all the forces thrown up by the anti-globalisation movement, and the people’s movements against growing imperialist attacks, and seek to take them to genuine liberation from imperialism and all reaction.

September 10, 2002

— Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA)

1) PBSP (CC) [Bangladesh]

2) PBSP (MPK)[Bangladesh]

3) BSD (ML) [Bangladesh]

4) CPEB (ML) [Bangladesh]

5) CPC (Maoist) [Sri Lanka]

6) MCC (India)

7) CPI-ML (PW) [India]

8) CPI-ML (Naxalbari) [India]

9) RCCI (Maoist) [India]

10) RCCI (MLM) [India]

11) CPN (Maoist) [Nepal]

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