Volume 6, No. 2, February 2005

As we had pointed out in our earlier issue of People’s March, the Congress government in AP led by YS Rajasekhara Reddy, has begun to tread along the same path as Chandrababu Naidu after the first round of peace talks in October last. While it began the fascist suppression with denial of permission to the peaceful public meetings and rallies as well as to the construction of martyrs’ columns by the CPI(Maoist) and CPI(ML)-Janashakti in the month of November, it took the form of extensive combings and harassment of the people in the month of December. And, from the first week of January 2005, the YSR government began to taste the blood of the revolutionaries even as it uttered, ad nauseum, that it was ready to hold peace talks with the Naxalites any number of times!!

January 6th marked the beginning of the ‘encounter raj’ under the Congress-TRS government led by YSR. On that day, the first fake encounter took place in the eight months of the Congress rule when Rajireddy, a member of a Janashakti squad, was shot from behind in the Mulugu forest in Warangal district. In less than 48 hours, the police fired on a PLGA squad of the CPI(Maoist) in Pullalacheuvu forest of Prakasham district on 8th January. They arrested an organizer of the Chaitanya Mahila Samakhya, comrade Laxmi, from Kurnool, tortured and shot her dead. A story was floated by the police that she was killed in the Pullalacheruvu encounter.

On 13th January comrade Pantha Narasimlu alias Naresh, the commander of the Maneru squad of Janashakti, was shot dead in Avanur village in Karimnagar district. As usual, the lawless police goons led by their new chief, Swaranjit Sen, swore that he was killed when the police opened fire in self-defense as the guerilla squad continued to fire upon the police party in spite of repeated warnings to surrender. An eye-witness account, however, sent a detailed report of what had actually happened to the media. The police officials, disguised themselves as contractors and traders and sent an informer to the Janashakti squad saying that they would give funds. When they were given an appointment they went to the spot and all of a sudden, began to fire from behind when Naresh fell to the bullets.

Within a week, on January 15, two encounters were staged in the Nallamala forest in which six Maoists were killed. In one encounter near Chintala village in Prakasham district, three guerillas, including a woman guerilla, were killed while three others were killed in the encounter near Bukkalingayapalli village in Achampet mandal in Mahboobnagar district. In the Chintala incident, the commander of Palavanka squad comrade Seshanna alias Madhu was killed. Comrade Seshanna had joined the CPI(Maoist) party, then known as CPI(ML)[PW], in the year 2002 after being in Janashakti for a long period. He was taken into the Divisional Committee of Nallamala Forest Division (NFD) in 2004. These incidents, it appears, had taken place when the police parties sat in ambush basing on information about the movements of the Maoist guerillas. The latter, it also appears, were caught unawares as the YSR government had been swearing day in and day out that it would maintain restraint though the cease-fire was not extended after it had lapsed on December 16, 2004. It, however, turned out that YSR and Jana Reddy, the state Chief Minister and Home Minister respectively, proved themselves to be of Hitler’s breed. They undertook a bloody offensive while keeping the Naxalites off guard by their talk of maintaining peace and their commitment to hold the second round of talks.

On January 17, two more persons, Sudarshan of Telangana Jana Sabha and Nalla Vasanth of TRS, were killed in Warangal district in the usual story of exchange of fire between the police and the Maoists that began when the latter had opened fire and the police retaliated in self-defence.

On Jan.20th three more youth party organisers were killed in a fake encounter in Karimnagar.

Thus, in a period of just fourteen days from 6th - 20th January, a total of fourteen persons — eleven revolutionaries belo-nging to the CPI(Maoist) and CPI(ML)-Janashakti, a static executive member of the women’s organization, the CMS (Com. Laxmi), one TJS activist and one activist of even the TRS, which is a partner in the ruling alliance, were killed in fake encounters in the state. There are strong reasons to surmise that the killing of the last two might have been done deliberately in order to scare those who are trying to agitate for a separate Telangana. This is because YSR is dead against the demand for a separate state and he would leave no stone unturned to foil it even if it meant killing people. The attacks against the Naxalites will also serve as a smokescreen to justify the killing of those agitating for a separate Telangana in the name of Naxalites.

By these brutal acts YSR’s Congress government had proved itself to be even more fascist than the predecessor Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP. It had dumped all the promises made to the people of Andhra Pradesh during the last Assembly elections that it would not resort to fake encounters, would check all police excesses, ensure the freedom of speech and assembly, and that it would even institute a judicial enquiry into all the fake encounters that had taken place during the TDP rule. Let alone ordering a judicial enquiry into the fake encounter killings of the past, now it itself had become the hangman and tyrant. The Congress tradition of brutal suppression of people’s movements has been there since 1947, and the ruthlessness with which it suppressed the nascent Naxalite movement in 1971 was an example.

When the Naxalites, during the first round of peace talks with the government, placed the demands of land distribution, self-reliance by doing away with the imperialist plunder and mobilizing the local resources, and ensuring the democratic atmosphere in the state by reining in the police, the exploiting ruling classes became unnerved.

As admitted by the state Home Minister Jana Reddy, there has been tremendous pressure from big business and the landlords to protect their property from the Naxalites. There had been several land occupation struggles all over the state and it was but natural for the landlords, who had illegally been enjoying the land since many years with the connivance of the politicians and police officials, should exert pressure on the government to clamp down on the Naxalites even if there is a hullabaloo about violation of democratic rights.

The World Bank has been in the forefront of this pressure campaign to end the peace talks and to physically eliminate the Naxalites especially after the latter had advanced the slogan of self-reliance and an end to all loans from the World Bank and the scrapping of all the conditionalities imposed by the Bank and other imperialists. The slogan of self-reliance is anathema for the imperialists who want nothing short of total, abject surrender of every Third World country. The demand of self-reliance is slated for discussion in the second round of talks and hence every attempt is made to scuttle the talks as this slogan could catch up with the people and initiate a militant mass agitation against imperialist exploitation.

The decision not to hold further talks with the Naxalites was taken by the Chief Minister and a small coterie in the Central government but it was made to appear to the outside world as if the government was still ready to hold talks. Once the decision was taken not to give further credibility and legitimacy to the politics of Naxalites, the Chief Minister began to seriously initiate measures to scuttle the talks. He began to talk of establishing permanent peace in the state and that Naxalites should give up arms and join the so-called mainstream. This campaign began soon after the completion of the first round of talks, particularly after the state Cabinet meeting on October 30. YSR went so far as to state that Naxalism was far more dangerous than factionalism and communalism. He was infuriated by the Naxal demand for the seizure and redistribution of the land of the imperialist and big business firms, political leaders and big bureaucrats all of whom had illegally acquired the land from the local people with the blessings of Chandrababu Naidu’s government. While it was his own party that had demanded an enquiry into these illegal acquisitions before it came to power now it deems it as absurd since it too wants to continue the same policy of selling out the state to the big business-imperialist combine with commissions and kickbacks for the ruling politicians and bureaucrats.

The first step taken by the YSR government was to curb the freedom of speech and assembly by denying permission to the meetings and rallies organized by the CPI(Maoist) and CPI(ML)-Janashakti since the first week of November and the ones that were allowed were subjected to several restrictions. As a result, most of the meetings planned by the two revolutionary parties after the first round of talks were cancelled.

The only big meeting was that on November 16, held in Hyderabad to mark the occasion of the formation of the CPI(Maoist) after the merger of the two Maoist revolutionary parties—CPI(ML)[People’s War] and MCCI. Even this meeting was held under stringent conditions and braving large-scale police harassment of the people proceeding to the meeting. Thousands of vehicles were either seized by the police a day before the meeting or stopped on way to the meeting place. The success of the meeting notwithstanding all these police measures had unnerved the rulers further.

Other measures taken by the YSR government were: to undertake combing operations in the name of routine village visits by the police, normal policing, counseling, training the youth for self-employment, so-called trisutra pathakam that involves development programmes by the MRO, MDO and the local sub-Inspector of police, organizing surrender dramas of Naxalites, building a network of police informers in the villages, searching for and removing landmines placed by the Maoists, intelligence gathering about the movements of the guerillas, fortification of the police stations, recruiting thousands of unemployed youth as homeguards, and so on. It had opened a regional headquarters of the anti-Naxal Greyhounds force in Vishakhapatnam to cover the operations in the AOB zone.

Even as the state government was making its preparations to counter the revolutionaries when the peace talks fail, was closely coordinating with the other states that fall under the Joint Operational Command in matters such as intelligence-sharing, and receiving assistance from the Centre in counter-insurgency warfare, and an assurance that all expenses incurred by the various state governments in dealing with "Left-wing extremism" would be met by it every year, it began to cry hoarse that Naxalites were taking undue advantage of the situation, making massive recruitment, arms collection, extortion of funds, threatening people, occupying lands, and so on.

The newly-appointed police chief, Swaranjit Sen, whose wife, incidentally, faces criminal charges of exporting babies to foreign countries, has turned out to be even more brutal than his predecessor. On the very day of taking charge he openly threatened that the police will do its duties of maintaining law & order which includes dealing with the Naxalites who carry arms while visiting villages, who indulge in extortion, or do anything unlawful and so on.

Thus, the Congress party that had cried from the roof-tops since 2002 that the Naxalite issue was not a Law & Order issue but a socio-economic-political one and promised to the people before and during the elections that it would never treat it as a L&O issue and would not indulge in fake encounters, had backtracked in a span of six months and began its repressive measures from the beginning of November last. And it began to stage fake encounters by January this year. It had begun to deal with the Naxalite issue as a Law & Order issue and is seeking a police solution to the issue. YSR government’s betrayal of the aspirations of the masses of AP who wanted a democratic atmosphere and an end to all repressive measures against the Naxalites brought strong reaction from the people and various democratic organizations and individuals. The very fact that the people of AP had rejected the call of the TDP led by Chandrababu Naidu to give their mandate against the Naxalites in the last elections showed the general sympathy of the people towards the Naxalites.

And this support was revealed in the period after the elections when they turned out in their lakhs to the meetings and rallies organized by the Maoists. During the first round of talks the response of the people was overwhelming. It was in fact this massive response that had unnerved the ruling party which made up its mind to call off the talks and begin the police offensive against the Naxalites. However, the Congress did not want to appear that it was against the talks. It began to reiterate day in and day out that it was ready for talks but this was possible only if the Naxalites stopped carrying arms to the villages. It first said that Naxalites should give up arms and join the "mainstream", argued that there was no place for violence in a "democracy", and such other trash but when objections came from several quarters, it began to insist on the 7th Clause as a precondition for talks. None of these drew any support for the government. On the contrary, questions began to be raised about the change in the government’s stance such as imposing conditions for holding the second round of talks when it was already agreed by the two sides to discuss the 7th clause in the second round, the combing operations undertaken by the police and a series of cease-fire violations by the police. There was increasing support to the Naxal demand for enquiry by the Monitoring Committee into the incidents of cease-fire violation by the police.

The government, when it had to finally agree for an enquiry due to increasing pressure, tried to confine it to the paper and no concrete measures were initiated to begin the enquiry. Moreover, it included seven more names into the Monitoring Committee without even consulting the Naxalites. Thus it tried by all means to play foul and escape responsibility for the misdeeds of its police. Even after eleven persons were killed in fake encounters in January and there was a furore in the state for an immediate enquiry into the incidents, the government referred only some old cases of minor importance to the Monitoring Committee while keeping silent on the latest emcounter killings by the police. This had further exposed the government’s dubious role and the Monitoring Committee rightly rejected the government proposal to take up enquiry of the past incidents. It told the Home Minister that such a proposal was irrelevant in the present context and that it was of utmost urgency to take up enquiry into the encounter killings in the four districts of Prakasham, Mahboobnagar, Karimnagar and Warangal.

The political crisis had intensified after the open statement issued by the CPI(Maoist) leaders comrades Ramakrishna, Jampanna and Sudhakar on January 15 and the January 17th statement by the leaders of both CPI(Maoist) and CPI(ML)-Janashakti. The leaders of the two parties made it clear that the talks were sabotaged by the government which had actually let loose a wave of repression and fake encounters while swearing that it was committed to continue the talks with the Naxalites. Hence they declared that they had no other alternative but to withdraw from the talks.

This drew massive protests from all the political parties against the government’s policy of staging fake encounters. All of them demanded that the government should persuade the Naxalites to resume talks and that it should conduct an enquiry into the encounters and punish the guilty. The crisis within the Congress party itself as well as in the TRS and in the ruling alliance became quite acute. Hundreds of lower-level functionaries within the Congress and TRS and MPTC and ZPTC members tendered their resignations en masse in some Telangana districts in protest against the government’s policy of encounters and demanding that talks should be continued to maintain peace in the state.

The state cabinet, after an emergency meeting, declared that it would resume talks and appealed to the Naxalites to reconsider their stand. The mediators, members of the monitoring committee and others accused the government for having vitiated the atmosphere by enacting fake encounters. At the time of writing, a demand was advanced by the Naxalites that they might reconsider if the SPs of the four districts where the fake encounters had taken place were removed and murder cases filed against them.

There is yet no response from the government and it is unlikely that the Congress, known for its long notorious tradition of suppression of people’s movements and brutal killings of revolutionaries will concede to these demands. The future seems bright in spite of the massive repression being let loose by the YSR government on the revolutionaries and the struggling people. The first round of talks had brought the people’s agenda to the fore and the prospects of a militant agitation for fulfilling the agenda are promising. Whatever may be the next turn of development in the ongoing talks, the people of AP have become more radicalized, and their democratic consciousness has further enhanced during the entire process of the peace talks. To that extent their support for the people’s war has grown and will be a great asset in the days to come. And it is this factor that has made the ruling classes jittery and prompted it to scuttle the talks and suppress the Naxalites.

Finally, on 17 January, 2005. in a press statement released by the AP units of the CPI(Maoist) and the CPI(ML)Janashakti said: No More Talks with the Government! Intensifying the people’s war — the only answer to the fake encounters perpetrated by the treacherous YSR government!! The statement added: People of Andhra Pradesh democratically aspired for the establishment of a democratic atmosphere in the state through talks with the Naxalites. The Y.S.Rajashekhara Reddy government had utterly betrayed these people’s aspirations. It has shamelessly abandoned its promises made during the elections that it would usher in a democratic atmosphere in the state by holding talks with the Naxalites and that it would resolve the basic issues of the people. Thus it proved itself to be an anti-people traitor. It revived the fascist rule in the state and thereby exposed its real character.

In just eleven days from 6-16 January, 2005 it had murdered eleven persons—ten comrades belonging to our two parties—CPI(Maoist) and Janashakti-and one organizer of a mass organization in Warangal, Prakasham, Mahboobnagar and Karimnagar districts. Among these were three women comrades including the state Executive Member of Chaitanya Mahila Samakhya, comrade Laxmi. The series of encounters that took place on January 14 and 15 were unheard of even during Chandrababu Naidu’s rule.

Then the statement goes on to trace the events as they occurred over the past few months and the betrayal of the Congress of even its own promises. It finally c\concludes saying: It has been proved once again that parliamentary democracy being advocated by the ruling classes is fake. It has also been clearly exposed that the present ruling classes cannot solve people’s problems through such a peaceful political process as talks. Under these circumstances, the government is trying to bind our hands in the name of talks and to suppress the revolutionary parties and the revolutionary masses. We are withdrawing from the process of talks due to this conspiracy of the government. We appeal to the entire people to understand this reality. We also appeal to the people to participate in the people’s war for the resolution of the basic problems of the people.

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