Free Comrades Gaurav and Kiran
As the main
article on the People's War in Nepal points out, the Indian government
has arrested and is holding a large number of leaders of the Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist). While the world-wide campagin to free Comrade
Gaurav was developing, the Indian government arrested another veteran
leader and member of the Standing Committee of the Party, Comrade
Kiran, in June 2004, while he was undergoing treatment in the Indian
state of West Bengal. The Indian government's efforts are aimed
at helping decapitate the revolutionary party and the revolutionary
war in Nepal, and it is no accident that they have stepped up the
intensity of these efforts as the revolution comes closer to the
seizure of power.
The imperialists
and reactionaries have repeatedly taught the oppressed the world
over painful, bloody lessons about the precious value of revolutionary
leaders. Time after time mighty upsurges from below have been crushed
or derailed by a combination of mass repression and carefully targeted
attacks on the revolutionary leaders at the head of the masses.
What Indian revolutionary does not remember with pangs of heartache
how Charu Majumdar was grabbed and executed by the Indian state
as he unleashed the spring thunder of righteous rebellion among
India's downtrodden peasants in Naxalbari, or what revolutionary
from Turkey has never lain awake at night, wondering just "what
might have been" if Ibrahim Kaypakkaya had somehow managed to escape
the Turkish death squads that cut short the life of that path-breaking
21-year-old communist leader? The Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement itself has the bitter experience, as the article points
out, of seeing the People's War in Peru suffer a grievous setback
in the wake of the capture of Communist Party of Peru Chairman Gonzalo
and much of the Party's central leadership.
Maoists are
firm believers that the masses are the makers of history - but they
also have a deep understanding of what that means in the world today:
that in the course of fighting their oppression, the masses need
and must bring forth leaders who have the understanding needed to
lead them forward through the twists and turns of the complex struggle
to prepare for revolutionary war, seize power and remake the world.
Without such leadership, however powerful the upsurge of the masses,
it will inevitably ebb or go down to defeat against the still far
more powerful enemy.
The US imperialists
are lashing out today in an unprecedented wave of aggression, "taking
the gloves off" their secret police and declaring open season on
all who oppose them. Revolutionaries must step up their efforts
to protect their leaders from the increasingly great threat they
face. This holds particular importance with regard to the Nepal
People's War, where the Indian government in particular has openly
declared its intention to go after the Nepalese revolutionary leadership
by suddenly arresting a large number of them over the last two years.
The Indian
authorities have earned the hatred of millions and exposed themselves
for their criminal complicity with the feudal monarchy in Nepal
by their treatment of the revolutionary leaders. Comrade Gaurav,
for instance, a member of the CPN(M) Politburo who was travelling
to Europe to carry out Party work, has been held since August 2003
merely on charges of having false papers - a charge that is normally
resolved within days or weeks. They have even threatened to deport
comrades Kiran and Guarav to Nepal, as they have already done on
the sly with Party leaders Matrika Prasad Yadav (a member of the
Political Bureau of the Central Committee) and Suresh Ale Magar,
kidnapped in New Delhi and illegally delivered into the hands of
the Nepali Royal Army. This is in clear violation of international
law and poses a direct threat to the lives of these revolutionary
leaders. The reactionary Nepalese monarchy has been sharply condemned
by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations for
having the world's worst record for "disappearances".
These attacks
on leaders of the revolution in Nepal have provoked a wave of protest
around the world. Protests have been held from Istanbul to London
and Delhi. The World People's Resistance Movement is waging an ongoing
campaign in defense of Comrades Kiran and Gaurav and the other leaders
and has already sent one delegation of lawyers and human rights
activists from Europe to India to put its government on notice that
the whole world is watching their reactionary manoeuvres.
To take part
in the defense or for more information, please contact: wprm@wprm.org.
Comrade
Gaurav
Comrade Chandra
Prakash Gajurel, popularly known as Comrade Gaurav, has been contributing
without relent for almost three decades as a professional revolutionary
in developing the Maoist movement in Nepal. He has always presented
himself in the revolutionary camp and fought against wrong lines
in all the line struggles in the Party's history. In the Fifth Congress,
1985, he eloquently pleaded against M.B. Singh's right opportunist
line document, which argued that the Party was falling back due
to the majority's centrist weakness. Comrade Gaurav's stand in the
Fifth Congress played an important role in safeguarding the revolutionary
spirit of the Party and navigating it safely from M.B.'s eclectic
and opportunist positions. He is one of the main leaders in defeating
opportunism of different shades and establishing a correct Maoist
line.
His consistent
revolutionary work for decades, his Maoist skill in the field of
organisation and his theoretical and political writings on various
issues in the national and international field concerning economic,
social and political questions and his proletarian internationalism
have made him a popular leader among the entire Party and the revolutionary
Nepalese masses across the country. Since the Fifth Congress, he
has been discharging his revolutionary duty as a Political Bureau
member of the Central Committee.
On his way
to do Party work abroad, the Indian expansionist rulers arrested
Comrade Gaurav, a beloved Maoist leader of the Nepalese people,
in Chennai airport. He has been held in Chennai jail, south India,
since 20 August 2003. n
Comrade
Kiran
Comrade Mohan
Baidya, popularly known as Comrade Kiran, has been working uninterruptedly
for more than three decades as a professional revolutionary in the
Maoist communist movement of Nepal. His deep study and excellent
grasp of Marxist philosophy, dialectical and historical materialism,
and revolutionary aesthetics has contributed a lot to developing
the Maoist movement in Nepal, and he established himself as a profound
Maoist leader, philosopher and revolutionary aesthetician of the
Nepalese masses. A true proletarian internationalist, Comrade Kiran
wrote many philosophical works interpreting and establishing Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
in the Nepalese revolutionary movement.
Comrade Kiran
resolutely fought against revisionism, neo-revisionism, and all
sorts of deviations within and outside of the Party. In addition,
he played a decisive role in defeating M. B. Singh's right opportunist
line.
In the Fifth
Congress in 1985, he was elected General Secretary of the erstwhile
CPN (Mashal). Under his leadership, the Party analyzed M.B.'s political
history in the communist movement and synthesised that he had represented
right opportunism throughout his self-proclaimed revolutionary life.
The National Conference held under Comrade Kiran's leadership following
the Fifth Congress brilliantly exposed M.B.'s right opportunism
hidden in his revolutionary prattling in the unanimously adopted
document, "Anarchist Individualism, the Nepalese Dimension of Right
Opportunism".
Noteworthy
to mention here is that Comrade Kiran stands as a rare leader in
the international communist movement for having voluntarily handed
over his position of supreme leadership as General Secretary of
the Party to another comrade. Comrade Kiran, with his deepest contentment,
proposed Comrade Prachanda to take this responsibility, based on
the latter's greater ability to lead the communist movement. He
also came to be one of the main contributors to developing the revolutionary
line of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN[M]) under the
leadership of Comrade Prachanda. Party leaders, cadres, PLA fighters
and the entire Nepalese people have a deep respect for him, not
only for his philosophical contributions to the movement, but also
for his esteemed sacrifice and determined service to revolution
under the Party's leadership.
The Indian
expansionist ruling class has put Comrade Kiran, a Standing Committee
Member of the CPN(M) Central Committee, a beloved leader of the
oppressed Nepalese people and an outstanding leader of the international
proletariat, in an Indian jail for over a year as of January 2005.
|