Volume 5, No. 1, January 2004

Globalisation, as we know, brings in its wake massive misery and suffering, starvation and disease, increases the economic, social inequalities to an unheard of scale. Ever since the phase of LPG began after the worldwide crisis that had set in during the early 1970s, country after country fell under the wheels of this juggernaut sliding ever deeper into a fathomless abyss. The ill-effects are too well-known. Workers have been retrenched or laid off with the closure of industries in the various corners of the globe, new employment came to a stand-still, wages froze or even reduced, working hours became longer, and contract, casual and part-time work grew at a rapid pace. Peasants have become impoverished, land became unproductive, agricultural produce unremunerative, and mass suicides grew. Women have been increasingly commoditified due to large promotion of the fashion-industry, tourism, advertising and pornography. The small and middle bourgeoisie became bankrupt unable to face the competition from the imperialist and comprador capitalist offensive. No section of the population is left untouched by the globalisation onslaught.

And everywhere the masses have responded militantly to the globalisation offensive that has been ruining their lives. Thus we find increasing mass militancy through various forms of resistance such as demonstrations, rallies, gheraos, general strikes, and so on, often clashing with the police and army. The growing resistance of the masses everywhere is met with fascist measures. The state structure has become further fascised, fundamental rights are curtailed, even personal freedoms are done away with in the name of countering terrorism. Terrorism is thus shown as a pretext, an omnipotent, omnipresent enemy that can only be countered through the most brutal measures one can ever think of.

The strategy adopted by the reactionary ruling classes everywhere is the same. Create a feeling of mass insecurity, almost bordering on paranoia. Divert the attention of the masses from the ill-effects of LPG and show an artificial enemy of terrorism as the main scourge faced by the entire world, that no citizen of any country is safe from this deadly enemy. In order to drive home their point the ruling classes themselves enact a few incidents and come down with a heavy hand on all those who are alleged to be having links with terrorists. Showing terrorism as the enemy, clamp down on every manifestation of mass militancy against the neo-liberal policies of the ruling classes. Outlaw the revolutionary parties that provide leadership to these mass movements. Seek legitimacy to this brutal onslaught on people’s movements by pretending to protect the lives of the people. This strategy seems to work for sometime but the deepening economic, political and social crisis is gradually tearing off the veil of this hypocrisy and conspiracy.

The same story is true in India, particularly in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is only by understanding this devious strategy of the imperialists and reactionary ruling classes everywhere that we can understand the developments in AP—the deepening crisis in the state, the acute dog-fights among various sections of the ruling classes, the rising militancy of the masses, the growing strength of the people’s war, the fascist onslaught by the TDP government, and bringing forth Naxalism as the principal agenda in the impending elections to state assembly. The declaration of this Agenda for the coming election is the culmination of the suppression campaign and the anti-people policies of the TDP government under Chandrababu Naidu. It is an open declaration of war against the people’s movements and is part and parcel of the global campaign undertaken by the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists, against so-called terrorism and is actually meant to suppress all legitimate movements of the people against the policies of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation.

Chandrababu Naidu has been able to present a computer-friendly ‘liberal’ mask of a reformer and a secular face while maintaining the fascist brutality of a Suharto and the cunningness of a Machiavelli. No wonder, some well-meaning intellectuals too have fallen prey to his outwardly liberal mask for a time unable to see the ugly savage face behind the mask. But the stark facts were: he had no qualms of switching over from being the convenor of the United Front when it was in power at the Centre to an ardent supporter of the communal fascist BJP when the power equations changed at the Centre; he had never hesitated to unleash the worst forms of repression on the revolutionaries through such abominable means as infiltrating the revolutionary movement through covert agents and employing lumpen vigilante squads to kill anyone suspected to have any links with the CPI(ML)[People’s War] or activists of democratic and civil liberties movements; and his very rise to power was as a factional leader who relied on the suppression of all his opponents in the faction-ridden Rayalaseema region. Given these characteristics it was but natural that the World Bank and the imperialists became enamoured of this new-found agent and chose him to fulfil their globalisation mission in AP.

The economy, society and polity in AP has been going through an unprecedented crisis ever since the state was made into a model state for the implementation of the policies of the World Bank in 1996. That was the year when the present Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, assumed the mantle by overthrowing the then unchallenged leader of the party and his father-in-law, NT Rama Rao. How could a relatively less-known figure like Chandrababu throw out a stalwart like NTR and turn the majority in the Party to his side? Herein lies the answer to the later-day developments and the crisis in the state.

The assumption of power by Naidu was the result of a well-laid out conspiracy by the CBB (comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie) and the imperialists with the direct intervention by the World Bank. The latter felt that NTR was incapable of carrying out the imperialist objectives. The whimsical behaviour of the film-hero-turned-politician, his populist gimmicks of wooing the masses through a series of welfare measures such as two-rupees-a-kilo rice for the poor and prohibition, his partial lifting of the ban on the PW after coming to power towards the end of 1994, all these had made the imperialists uncomfortable about carrying out their plans under his leadership. He was unreliable given his populist style of leadership. When they found a more reliable and ambitious lackey in Naidu the imperialists and the World Bank on the one hand, and the Comprador bourgeoisie particularly the Eenadu group led by Ramoji Rao on the other, decided to back him through all means at their disposal. Naidu entered into a secret agreement with the imperialist agency and promised them to implement all their neo-liberal policies in AP without any reservation. A plan was thus drawn up to reverse the promises made in the elections by the TDP and which began to be implemented in the first year of its reign like subsidised rice at rupees two a kilo and prohibition. The Liberalisation plan was to be combined with a repressive regime with concrete measures to suppress the Naxalites. A multi-pronged strategy was worked out under the direction of the World Bank to tackle the Naxalite issue. Based on the Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC) strategy, a massive inflow of funds into the areas of armed struggle intended for winning over a section of the rural populace and for development of infrastructure such as roads and communications was planned along with a massive modernisation of the police forces and the creation of special forces trained in counter-insurgency warfare.

The above plan began to be executed in April 1996, though conceived a few months before. In a silent coup, about which the then unchallenged Party supremo, NTR, had absolutely no inkling, the leadership was replaced when the majority of the TDP MLAs shifted their loyalties to the new stooge of the World Bank. How much money changed hands to ensure a majority can only be a conjecture. Part of the funds for horse-trading definitely came from the imperialists.

No sooner had Naidu assumed the reins in the state than the World Bank strategy began to take effect. On 23rd of July 1996, the CPI (ML)[People’s War] was banned along with six other revolutionary mass organisations. A day after the ban, the rice subsidy was scrapped, bus fares were hiked, and prices of other essential commodities were increased. Talk of partial lifting of the prohibition of liquor in the state was put forward which was carried out soon afterwards. These demands were popular demands and the TDP under NTR capitalised on the mass sentiment on these issues by promising that it would implement these if voted to power. These promises played a major role in bringing the TDP to power at the beginning of 1995. NTR had to put them into effect in the immediate aftermath of the elections.

The ban on the PW and the revolutionary mass organisations that was in existence since 1992 when the Congress(I) government under the notorious Janardhan Reddy imposed it, was lifted in June 1995, though an unofficial ban continued in practice. The NTR government was compelled to lift the ban since it was one of the major promises made by the TDP during the election campaign of December 1994. It is worthwhile to note that the Congress (I) that headed the preceding government in the state was defeated mainly due to the brutal repression it had let lose on the masses of the Telangana region. So much was the pent-up anger of the masses who languished under the iron heels of repression, that even several ministers belonging to the Congress(I) lost with great margins Over 500 people died, most of them in the five North Telangana districts, during the Congress(I) rule. The TDP under NTR effectively utilised this by assuring the people that it would put an end to fake encounters and stop police atrocities on the people. It also assured that it would go into the fake encounters by setting up a judicial commission of enquiry. It promised to restore the fundamental rights of the people and to lift the ban on the CPI(ML)[PW] and six other mass organisations that was in force since 1992. This was the background for lifting the ban on the Party and mass organisations. But even to concede this a massive struggle had to be waged by the various democratic organisations in the state.

However, it was only an eye-wash since the ruling classes would not dare to restore the fundamental rights of the people in the struggle areas as that would have led to massive struggles against the anti-people policies of the government. In the 17 months of TDP rule under NTR prior to the reimposition of the ban by Naidu in July 1996, 141 revolutionaries and their sympathisers were killed. However, prior to the reimposition of the ban the PW had effectively utilised whatever legal space existed for democratic struggles during the immediate interregnum between the TDP coming to power under NTR and the coup by Chandrababu Naidu.

Notable among these were the massive prison struggle that encompassed all the central prisons in the state and had a broad base of support with over 30 democratic organisations supporting the struggle from outside under the banner of the Joint Action Committee for Democratic Rights (JACDR), and the massive movement by the Struggle Committee in Defence of Prohibition and Social Welfare Schemes consisting of over 40 organisations. The JACDR took out a huge rally to the state assembly on 17 January 1995 demanding the immediate lifting of the ban. On 21 February the same year, another massive ‘Chalo Secretariat’ programme was taken up. It organised solidarity campaigns in support of the demands of the prisoners. The prison struggle went on for almost two months with a brief interval and it had the potential of snowballing into a major political crisis for the government. Hence the TDP government headed by NTR had to accept most of the demands put forth by the prisoners led by the CPI(ML)[People’s War]. The gathering mass movement forced the NTR government to reluctantly lift the ban but it refused to do anything with regard to the findings of the TLN Reddy Commission of Enquiry into encounter killings.

The second massive struggle took place after the take-over of the mantle of Chief Minister by Chandrababu Naidu. The very day Naidu took office it became clear to one and all that a conspiracy was hatched with the World Bank to do away with all the promises made during the elections to the state assembly. Hence almost all the democratic and revolutionary organisations launched a massive movement to defend the demands of the people. On July 17, 1996, thousands of people converged in the state’s capital, Hyderabad, responding to the ‘Chalo Assembly’ call of the Struggle Committee. The demonstrators gheraoed the MLAs who were proceeding to the Assembly complex in two buses. The police resorted to indiscriminate lathi-charge and arrested over 2000 protesters.

The ruling classes and their imperialist mentors know too well the dangers inherent in a revival of the militant revolutionary mass movement. The memories of the mass upsurge in 1990, when lakhs upon lakhs of people were mobilised into massive struggles for land, wages, self-respect and liberation shook the state, were fresh in the minds of the powers-that-be. The prospects of a repetition of that phase at a higher level, given the organised strength and capacity of the PW had unnerved the ruling classes. The prospects of a resurgence of militant movement under the leadership of the PW seemed bright and became a spectre for the ruling classes. Plans were drawn up for curbing all open activity of the PW well before but was kept in abeyance in view of the eleventh Parliamentary elections in May 1996. The July 17 programme accelerated its implementation. Within a week after the huge peaceful rally, the government declared the ban on the Party and six revolutionary mass organisations affiliated to it.

The need for curbing this growing movement against the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation of the TDP government became the immediate reason for the ban while the long-term strategy was to completely eliminate the Party and the movement through a comprehensive counter-insurgency plan. The immediate measure arose from the need to make the masses leaderless. The imperialists and the reactionary ruling classes are quite conscious of the inevitable growth of the people’s war and the final triumph of communism. In the immediate context, they know the gravity of the social consequences of their neo-liberal policies under globalisation and how these would unleash a train of people’s struggles not only against the ill-effects of globalisation but also against imperialism and the social system. The presence of a revolutionary Party would transform these struggles into struggles against the very social system and would provide the warriors and organisers for the people’s war. The experiences in Latin America had been an eye-opener for the reactionary international capital.

It was thus no accident that within 24 hours after the declaration of the ban, a series of anti-people measures were announced. On the same day bus fares were hiked steeply. On the next day, the 24th of July, power tariff and water cess were raised; the prices of subsidised rice was increased from Rs. 2 a kilo to Rs. 3.50 and the monthly quota was lowered from 25 Kg to 20 kg. On August 2nd, sales tax on several commodities was raised resulting in an all-round price increase. The TDP extracted Rs. 1800 crores from the people by cutting the subsidies. Another Rs. 2,250 crores was raised through additional taxes on the people. Such is the real meaning of the ban imposed by the TDP under Naidu under the tutelage of the World Bank and imperialist masters. It became clear even to a layman that liberalisation of economy under globalisation requires brutal onslaught on the people’s movements and their fundamental rights. Unleashing massive suppression of the only force capable of taking up this challenge, the revolutionary Maoist CPI(ML)[People’s War], is an essential pre-requisite for the ruling classes.

Thus ever since the first steps taken in July 1996, the TDP stooge government under Naidu stepped up the repression of the revolutionary movement and the Party leading it while carrying out the regressive anti-people policies under the direction of the World Bank and international capital. The anti-people policies taken up by the TDP government during its eight-year regime can be understood only against this background.

The World Bank thus became firmly entrenched after Naidu came to power. In October !996, the World Bank chief, James Wolfensohn, visited AP and a paper entitled ‘Andhra Pradesh Agenda for Economic Reforms’ was prepared by the Chandrababu Naidu government as dictated by the World Bank. The paper even had the World Bank’s markings on it. Then there is no looking back by the Naidu government whatever be the opposition from the various democratic organisations and sections of people. A $150 milion loan came in the form of a IDA credit for cyclone relief and a $350 million six-year loan for the development of state highways in May 1997. Then came the $1 billion power sector loan and a $200 million loan for Hyderabad’s water supply.

The most conspicuous of all loans, however, was the Economic Restructuring Loan (ESL), the first ever given to a state government in the country. The speciality of this $550 million loan is that it came without any opposition from the US government during the period of the American sanctions imposed on India in the wake of the Pokharan nuclear tests. This loan was to be used for primary education, primary health, irrigation, nutrition, roads and public sector restructuring and was basically meant to diffuse the disastrous impact of Naidu’s economic policies on the masses and to wean away the youth from the path of struggle and revolution. Then came several other loans for infrastructure development, poverty alleviation, community development and so on.

Now let us take a look at some of the major policies of the TDP immediately after the ban and the impact of these so-called reforms of the World Bank on the people of the state with special emphasis on two major spheres—agriculture and Electricity ‘reform’—as these are the major components of the World Bank document, Vision 2020, aggressively promoted by Chandrababu Naidu.

Under the reign of TDP in the state and the anti-people NDA government at the Centre led by the BJP, privatisation of PSUs, service sector, and social services went on at a rapid pace. The Allwyn, Republic Forge, Azamzahi Mills, etc., were either closed down or sold out to private companies. The sugar mills, oil mills, handlooms, power looms, and the milk dairies under the cooperative sector were either closed down or sold off to private companies. The Chittore cooperative sugar mill, one of the largest in the country with fixed assets of Rs. 100 crores, was privatised under the pretext of losses along with seven other sugar mills. The state-owned popular textile marketing cooperative, APCO, a profit-making unit, was almost closed down by firing workers under the so-called VRS.

A big fraud was the privatisation of the dairies. The Chittore coop milk dairy was sold off to make way for the Heritage Dairy of Naidu’s wife, Buvaneswari making a profit of Rs. 3 crores every month. Vijaya dairy in Nellore was pushed into losses and private milk producers were allowed to flourish. A total of 19 corporations were dissolved within a year after Naidu came to power. Desperate attempts are being made to privatise the state road transport corporation and the Singareni Collieries that supplies coal to most of south India. It is only the stiff resistance by the working class and the democratic organisations that had put the TDP on leash.

The most striking example of the fraud of privatisation is the AP State Electricity Board. Prior to 1995, it was making huge profits but the TDP government deliberately pushed it into losses with the hidden motive of privatising it. The losses were due to the illegal connections to the big contractors millers and business houses and lack of recovery of the tariff from these exploiters whose arrears became huge. The blame for the losses was, of course, placed on the peasants who, it was alleged, made illegal connections for their agricultural pump sets. The APSEB, with total assets of around Rs. 80,000 crores, was trifurcated into three companies—APTRANSCO, APGENCO and APDISCOM. Assets worth over Rs.25000 crores of APDISCOM were declared as worth only Rs. 435 crores by the Naidu government in their ‘second transfer scheme’ in April 2000!

In 1999, for the first time in World Bank’s history, a state in India is chosen for direct funding unlike the earlier practice of proceeding through the Central government. Thousands of crores of rupees were lent to AP by the WB in the past eight years since the TDP came to power. The state’s debt, which was a miniscule figure in 1996 when Naidu took over the reins, has now reached a mind-boggling Rs. 59,000 crores.

Agriculture has been the most neglected sphere under the TDP’s market reforms. The peasantry, constituting around 65 % of the entire population of the state, have become heavily indebted, bankrupt, and have become victims of the vagaries of the unscrupulous traders, commission agents, moneylenders as much as of the drought, floods, cyclones and other so-called natural calamities. The fact that mass suicides of the peasants have been increasing ever since introduction of the new agricultural policy reflects the gravity of the situation. In Warangal district over 300 suicide deaths took place in just one year. According to a study 264 suicides had taken place in one district of Ananatapur in the perennially drought-prone Rayalaseema region in the three years since April 2000. Even in the districts like Guntur, falling in the traditional rice belt and the granary of south coastal region, suicides had become commonplace. There is also a growing trend of the practice of selling off kidneys for a few thousand rupees.

The main reasons for the suicides of the peasants are: lack of water for irrigation, shortage of power supply, low voltage and power cuts during the critical periods, failure of the banks and financial institutions of the state to provide loans, dependency on unscrupulous traders who supply spurious and sub-standard fertilisers, seeds, and pesticides with the blessings of the government and the local officials, unremunerative prices for agricultural produce and government’s failure to provide marketing facilities, distress sales due to lack of storage facilities and the burden of repayment of debts, high cost of production when compared to other states including even Punjab, and so on.

It was found that a large part of the debts incurred by the peasants was from private moneylenders and traders due to the failure of the so-called nationalised banks and rural development banks. Even the stipulated percentage fixed by NABARD for loans to the poor peasants, and those belonging to the scheduled castes and Tribes was not followed by the commercial, cooperative and regional rural banks thereby driving the vast majority of the peasantry into the clutches of the rapacious moneylenders. They are forced to purchase the most sub-standard seeds, fertilisers and pesticides from the dealers who prey on them like parasites charging interest at a rate of 24 % or even more for these sub-standard inputs. Most of these dealers in Telangana belong to Andhra region who have the full backing of the state. The wrath of the peasantry against these traders is so pent up that on several occasions these dealers were beaten up and their shops destroyed in places like Warangal. (It goes to the credit of the Naidu’s reactionary government to have come down with a heavy hand on a democratic peasant organisation like the popular Rythu Sewa Samithi that had taken up several struggles against the fertliser, seed and pesticide dealers in Warangal). As a result of all these factors, the cost of production of agricultural commodities was the highest in AP for most crops. Unable to recover even the production costs, the peasantry has been committing suicides unable to repay the loans and to make their both ends meet.

Thus agriculture that supports the vast majority of the country’s population has been the hardest hit due to the policies of globalisation pursued by the governments both in the state and the Centre. The peasantry is directly under attack by both the imperialist agencies like the WTO, the World Bank and the imperialist countries on the one hand, and the reactionary Indian ruling classes on the other. The governments in all the imperialist countries dole out massive subsidies to the farmers in their own countries while shouting against protectionism and in favour of the free market. They are the most protectionist when it comes to agriculture. But in countries like India, fertiliser subsidies are scrapped, power tariffs and water cess are increased, and the state has completely washed off its hands from intervening to solve the problems of the peasantry leaving everything to the so-called hoax of the free market. In AP a massive movement of the peasantry against the scrapping of fertiliser subsidies was suppressed brutally. Three peasants died during the police firing on the demonstrators in Kaaldaari in West Godavari district in 1998. Thus the imperialist TNCs, comprador big bourgeoisie companies and the traders loot the peasantry by jacking up the prices of all agricultural inputs, while on the other hand the imperialists control and manipulate the prices of the agricultural produce on the world market in favour of their own countries. The fall in the prices of agricultural commodities had ruined even many relatively better-off peasants, not to speak of the poor and middle peasants. The Naidu government and the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had completely abdicated any responsibility of solving even the immediate problems of the peasantry.

Hence, recurrent famine has now become a feature of rural Andhra Pradesh. Every year famine strikes in one part or the other and for three consecutive years it has encompassed over three-quarters of the state. Endless stretches of parched lands, dried up crops, desertification of the rice bowls, dying cattle, mass suicides and lack of drinking water, characterise the rural scene in AP. Such has been the result of the much-vaunted development schemes of the TDP government and the preceding Congress(I) government.

Outwardly, the so-called reforms introduced by the TDP under the guidance of the World Bank appear to be enhancing the participation of the people and giving them initiative. In reality, they are nothing but an attempt to control the lives of the people by the operation of the so-called free market thereby denying the poor any share in the social wealth they produce. By introducing the concept of self-help and user charges, the imperialists wish to shift the entire burden of social welfare on the community and the individual and absolve the state of all responsibility. Reduction of state’s role in the economy and giving full play to the market forces or simply put, market fundamentalism is the underlying philosophy of the World Bank schemes. The essence of it is privatisation with the motto; each for himself/herself and devil take the hindmost’. Those who have the means can prosper while those who cannot afford will perish. Shramdaans, self-help projects, water users’ associations, rythu bazaars, DWCRA, corporate agriculture, and the whole lot of schemes of the TDP reflect this philosophy of the World Bank and the imperialist swindlers and speculators. Basic needs like education, health care, power, agricultural inputs, bank loans, water for irrigation and even drinking water belong to those who can afford them. Thus every service is transformed into a commodity that has to be purchased by paying in full and at times, even more than its actual price.

It goes to the credit of the Naidu government for implementing the WB conditions fully and without any reservations. ‘Pay and use’ system has now become the norm from basic needs like public toilets to drinking water and electricity and transport, and intellectual needs like library and access to information. From the day he assumed the mantle in place of NTR in 96, the comprador Naidu, like a pet-dog of the WB, has most loyally implemented all the conditions such as scrapping of all welfare schemes, lifting the subsidies to the poor, and introducing user charges on all and sundry. Fending for oneself is the basic dictum of the WB and is seen in all the schemes initiated in AP under the TDP.

By this the rich only intend to grab everything the society produces through all means at their disposal the entire surplus value of the toiling masses, without giving anything in return. The falling rates of profits, the ever-increasing economic crisis and the cut-throat competition between the various imperialist powers and the international monopoly capitalist groups, has led to an intensified attack by capital on the masses throughout the world. There has been an aggressive rush by international capital to grab the markets, resources, and the social wealth in every country and shift the entire burden onto the backs of the helpless people. Reduction in public spending and subsidies to the poorer sections of society have led to acute increase in poverty and widening disparities between the rich and the poor as never before heard of in history. Thus these World Bank-dictated policies only landed the state into more severe crisis, as is the norm in every country where the WB-IMF-WTO prescriptions were administered.

The neo-liberal reforms of privatisation and liberalisation are a convenient tool for the amassment of riches by the ruling class politicians and the bureaucracy through unscrupulous means. The Eluru land scam, power purchase agreement scams, Charminar bank scam and various urban coop bank scams, frauds by numerous financial companies that mushroomed under the reforms, the fake stamp paper scam, and the huge money made in real estate deals in Hyderabad and other cities, scams related to janmabhoomi programmes and co-called shramdaan schemes, and various other scams characterise Naidu’s rule. The worst crime against humanity, however, is the ‘Food for Work’ fraud under which the contractors, fair price shop dealers and corrupt revenue officials together swallowed a large part of the Rs. 2000 crores worth of rice supplied by the Centre for the famine-struck state. These vultures by snatching away the food from mouths of the rural poor who starved and even committed suicides unable to meet both ends meet.

In fact, reforms are a means for filling the pockets of the officials, and political leaders while allowing the big business and the imperialists to plunder the country at will. Fat commissions and kickbacks for the officialdom and profits for the capitalists on the one hand and poverty and suffering for the vast masses on the other—such is the essence of the neo-reforms whichever the regime may be. Under the TDP regime headed by Naidu the amounts thus siphoned off are of very huge as the sums spent on the so-called development schemes and the loans taken from the World Bank are mind-boggling. From a modest figure of Rs……crores at the time of the ascendancy of Naidu to power it the state’s debts had reached a stunning figure of Rs….crores at present. Considering the loot by the officials and the politicians to be at least one-quarter of this amount with lower side estimate, it reaches a figure of over 10,000 crores from the loans alone. Then there are the central funds and schemes such as the aforementioned ‘food for work’ scheme and the enormous taxes collected from the people. No wonder then, the Chief Minister himself is said to have accumulated wealth to the tune of over Rs. 2,500 crores during his tenure.

The top police brass in the police state of AP, being involved in the brutal suppression for over three decades and having found the brutal reign of terror an easy means of making money, has a vested interest in continuing the repression. Curbing Naxalism is easy bait for making money. Anyone can be branded as a sympathiser or having links with the banned Party and huge amounts can be extorted. The rich contribute enormous sums to the police for suppressing the Naxalites. Thus crores of rupees are extorted in the name of curbing Naxal activities. Moreover, the police thugs without any accountability can swallow money that is obtained on raids on Naxal hideouts or dumps. Most important source, of course, is the huge funds that are doled out by the governments at the state and centre for the counter-insurgency operations a significant chunk of which finds its way into the pockets of the lawless officials. It is this material incentive that makes the police officials adamant towards any political move for lessening the repression. Hence it is not difficult to understand their reluctance to the proposal for Talks made by some democratic organisations since the last few years. ‘Peace’ would mean a denial of access to the huge sources of the illegal funds for the police officials. They had experienced it during a brief period in 1990 when the relaxation in repression led to a loss of even the routine income from cases to the police as peasants stopped going to the courts for resolving their disputes including the civil cases related to property. The Naxalites and their mass organisations solved these to the chagrin of the police and the revenue officials. Hence in less than six months, repression was let lose again with vengeance and in the period of four years from 1991-94, at least 600 people were killed under the Congress(I) regime. This has been stepped up on a massive scale due to the incentives provided by the World Bank stooge Naidu since 1996. The interests of the TDP politicians and the top police brass thus coincide on this point and hence their disinterestedness towards even a temporary truce. Unless we understand this point it is difficult to understand the extreme brutality and the magnitude of repression in AP that is deliberately kept up whatever be the threat from the Naxalites.

Now the moot question is: Why was the state of AP specially chosen for the World Bank’s experiment among the states in India? The answer lies, as explained in the foregoing, in the Maoist revolutionary movement that has been persisting since the past three decades without a let up, its rapid and extensive spread to the neighbouring states, and the potentialities of its developing into a big threat to the ruling classes and imperialism. The oppressed masses in other parts of India have begun to look at the ongoing people’s war as the real solution to their problems. The establishment of Guerilla Zones, the possibility of their developing into Base Areas, and the great impact it would have on the Indian political scene is anathema to the rulers. If the people begin to consider the revolutionary Party as the only alternative, then the reactionary ruling classes, already discredited in the eyes of the masses, will find themselves in a critical situation. Hence the heart of the revolutionary movement led by People’s War—the state of Andhra Pradesh— was chosen for the all-round LIC strategy by the imperialists so that the ‘contagion’ would not spread. By suppressing the revolutionary movement in AP, particularly in the guerillla zone of North Telangana, the Indian ruling classes fondly hope to suppress the revolutionary movement in other parts of the country relatively easily. This is the basis for the selection of AP for the World Bank strategy.

AP can thus said to be the first test case for the suppression of the revolutionary movement initiated by the World Bank in India. As remarked by a World Bank official, "It is the first state in India and in the world with a comprehensive approach. The world is watching (AP), because there are quite a few large countries with important states. So there is a keen interest in this sub-national approach to lending and reform."

Needless to say, such a ‘sub-national approach’ would often be resorted to by the imperialists in large countries for suppressing the revolutionary movements and for subverting or destabilising defiant regimes in future. Hence, the imperialists are all the more interested to make their model of development in the state of AP a success story.

The other reasons are the abundance of resources, relatively developed infrastructure, and the vast market potential of the state. Andhra Pradesh is a state with a population that is greater than any European country. It is comparable to Germany in terms of population and mineral resources, and has greater agricultural potential. The coal belt of Singareni, spread over four districts of North Telangana, is no less rich than the Ruhr basin in Germany. It also has a highly-skilled work force and engineers. Thus the imperialists think of hitting at two birds with one shot: suppress the revolutionary movement while showing it as a model state of development by exploiting its rich natural resources and human resources.

Ever since the Naidu government assumed office, development schemes worth crores were taken up in the state. Roads were laid in the struggle zones for the easy mobility for the police forces. Rs. 10,000 crores was allotted for building and modernising roads in the state with special emphasis on the areas dominated by the Naxalite movement. The World Bank team surveyed the districts of the North Telangana for laying roads. Communications were developed in the entire rural belt in North Telangana and part of the hitherto inhospitable regions in North Andhra forest of the Eastern Ghats. The schemes under attractive titles such as: Janmabhoomi, prajala vaddaku palana, Rythu bazaars, velugu, deepam, Dwara, and so on, were introduced in order to win over a section of the masses and create a social base for the TDP in the rural areas. The TDP succeeded to an extent to gain a section of the populace while driving the vast majority of the masses, especially the peasantry, into poverty and misery. The most important measure, however, remains the modernisation of the repressive machine, training of the special police forces in counter-insurgency operations, achieving swift coordination and mobility for these forces to suppress the revolutionaries, and stepping up the brutal onslaught against the revolutionaries and the masses in the struggle areas through various forms of suppression such as encounter killings, mass arrests, tortures, destruction of houses and property of the activists and sympathisers.

As we have seen from the foregoing, it is the World Bank that actually runs the state of Andhra Pradesh in order to serve the imperialists. The World Bank, IMF, WTO and other imperialist agencies are the tools of international capital and every loan that they advance to the Third World countries is conditional. Like the legendary Shylock, these institutions draw every drop of blood along with interest from the poor, indebted countries, change the policies in favour of international capital, and impose the most brutal dictatorships in order to carry out the neo-liberal policies and to extract their debts.

The people of AP have become captives to the machinations of these imperialist agencies most loyally implemented by their trusted stooge, Chandrababu Naidu. No wonder, the imperialist media has hailed Naidu as a great reformer who is committed to transform the state into a high-tech paradise. Unending lies and myths are being built about the so-called development taking place under Naidu. Thousands of crores of rupees are pumped in to the state to carry out these plans and to fortify the position of Naidu. At no time in the history of the state was so much spent on publicity. The media has been bought off through bribes and government advertisements. The so-called development of information technology, software technology parks, software exports, and so on, has at last proved to be a big myth carefully nurtured for so long through sheer publicity. Hyderabad is nowhere compared to Bangalore or Chennai in software development. The high-tech city has now become exposed as a high drama. The massive scams and frauds have become exposed. The development cacophony is now being realised by the various sections of the population as a big fraud.

The so-called transparency about which the TDP had been boasting with its rhetoric of open debate, public dialogue, seminars etc., has now become a real thing as everyone is able to see through the game that is being played. The invisible thread in the hands of the World Bank and the imperialists that is controlling the puppet regime of Naidu is now seen by all. And a massive wave of people’s struggles against the misrule of the TDP government is gathering momentum.

It is at such a historical juncture of a crisis-ridden economy, society and polity in AP that Naidu’s TDP has come out with a new agenda in the forthcoming elections. In fact, the announcement of the agenda is an admission of the total failure of the policies of the TDP government vis-à-vis the revolutionary movement. The seven-and-half year ban on the CPI(ML)[People’s War] and the various mass organisations affiliated to it has had no effect in achieving the objective of the ruling classes and the imperialists. The massive pumping in of funds into the rural areas in AP by the World Bank, the huge funds spent on laying roads and developing communications, modernisation of the repressive machinery, the all-out support rendered by the fascist Central government to the TDP to suppress the people’s war, the help received from the imperialist countries and Israel for the training of the special forces of AP in counter-insurgency warfare and in modernising the police force, the attempts made by the Centre to suppress the movement in nine states by setting up a Joint Coordinating Centre and later the Joint Operational Command, had all failed in suppressing the people’s war.

Chandrababu Naidu had been in the forefront in initiating and perfecting the dirty schemes to suppress the revolutionary movement. At the Chief Ministers’ meeting in Delhi in April 2000, he submitted a paper on Left-wing Extremism in AP and suggested ways to effectively combat it. Like a thug he suggested to his counterparts in other states how to build a network of police informants among the people, how to infiltrate the ranks of CPI(ML)[People’s War] and its guerrilla squads and eliminate the leadership through such covert agents. Showing the success of the AP police in utilising such covert agents he called upon the other eight states to emulate the example set by the police in AP. The Joint Operational Command that had come into existence since then has not had much success worth mentioning in suppressing the people’s war. Swallowing their pride, the police officials and the government now admit that they had failed in curbing the activities of the CPI(ML)[People’s War] despite using all the methods at their disposal. For time and again they had claimed that people’s war was finished and it was only a matter of time before the existing few squads too are disbanded. They killed 1450 comrades belonging to the CPI(ML[PW], its mass organisations and sympathisers during the 8-year rule of the TDP. Thousands were arrested and brutally tortured. Women were raped. Property of the peasants worth crores of rupees was destroyed. Civil liberties activists were eliminated. Mafia gangs and vigilante squads were formed, trained, equipped with arms, money and vehicles, and were engaged in attacks against known sympathisers of the movement and radical intellectuals. A vast informers network was established throughout the areas of the revolutionary movement. Vast amounts of money was spent for rewards on every member of the Party and the mass organisation and for propaganda against the Party and leaders of the movement. At least Rs. 200 crores is being spent annually for intelligence gathering, informers network and covert agents by the state government. But all this had ended in a fiasco.

The daring attack on Chandrababu Naidu in Tirumala Ghat on the 1st of October 2003 showed the hollowness of the successes claimed by the TDP government in its counter-revolutionary war against People’s War. The Party and the revolutionary movement has spread to newer areas, has made a deep niche in the hearts and minds of the oppressed masses, and has legitimacy as the leader of the fighting people despite the ban imposed on it. On the other hand, the ruling TDP has lost the legitimacy to all its claims of development and suppression of the revolutionary movement. Hence it has become imperative for the TDP to come down even more heavily on the revolutionary movement and all democratic struggles of the people against its anti-people policies of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. The agenda of suppressing the CPI(ML)[People’s War] with the plea that it is a hurdle to the TDP’s development schemes is the last trump card up its sleeve. If catapulted to power once again due to huge funds and rigging, it is certain that the TDP would unleash repression on the revolutionary and democratic movements on a scale unheard of in the history of India. Already, the fascist BJP-led government at the Centre has agreed to send eight battalions of central forces to AP by mid-December and a greater number once the Election Commission issues the notification for the Assembly elections. In a matter of a week after the announcement of the dissolution of the state Assembly on November 14, the state’s special police forces had killed fourteen comrades. It is a repeat of the December 1994 elections when the then Congress government in the state killed 36 people and arrested thousands of youth in just one week prior to the elections. As the elections draw nearer, an even greater blood-bath awaits AP.

Needless to say, this tactic is bound to end up in fiasco given the deep roots of the PW among the oppressed masses and the growth of political consciousness among the people in the state who are able to see through the game of the TDP under Chandrababu Naidu. A great wave of people’s movements is infolding and the rivers of blood that will flow through the vast rural areas of AP will wash away the stooge government of Naidu even if he wins.

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