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| India-Pakistan |
| Left Wing Extremism: Synchronized Onslaught |
| 2004-01-27 |
| With the general elections round the corner, Left wing Extremists - popularly termed Naxalites - of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML), People’s War Group (PWG), and the Maoist Communist Center (MCC) have begun efforts to resolve their differences and work towards an organizational merger, potentially creating a grave threat to the electioneering process in the areas they dominate. In keeping with their ideological opposition to Parliamentary democracy in India, they have already called for a boycott of the election process, and large-scale preparations are said to be underway to ensure the success of the boycott. Vigorous efforts are in evidence for the organisation of training camps, procurement of illegal firearms, fund-raising, as well as outreach and propaganda activities to gain public sympathy. Available reports suggest that the PWG and the MCC would merge under a new identity: the All India Maoist Communist Center (AIMCC), and would acquire a more militant ’avatar’. Intelligence sources indicate that the MCC is currently holding talks with the PWG and a few other like-minded organisations in India, as well as with Nepal’s Maoist insurgents. Leaders of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) are believed to be acting as mediators to strengthen the extreme Left in the region. Given the significant increase in Naxalite activities in Central India after the August 11, 1998, merger of the PWG with Party Unity, another revolutionary group operating in Bihar, the possible union of the MCC and the PWG creates probabilities of a substantial force multiplier for Left Wing insurgencies over a vast landscape. The MCC’s philosophy revolves around two premises. The first is that, within the country, a revolutionary mass struggle existed and the people were fully conscious and even prepared to take part in revolution immediately. The second was that militant struggles must be carried on, not for land, crops, or other immediate goals, but for the seizure of power. These assumptions are reflected in all their views, whether on organization, on strategy or on tactics. As a result, participation in elections, propaganda, meetings, demonstrations, education of people through papers and pamphlets, are all viewed as being totally unnecessary, and all efforts and attention is firmly focused on revolutionary activities to undermine the state and seize power. Though the PWG also held a similar view till the early 1980s, it has since shifted stance and established several political front organisations. The PWG gradually discarded its initial assessment of the people’s level of preparedness for an armed struggle, and consequently revised its strategy of immediate seizure of power. Despite these differences, both the organizations share their belief in the ’annihilation of class enemies’ and in extreme violence as a means to achieve the organisation’s goals. The PWG and the MCC have been responsible for the maximum number of violent attacks and fatalities in Naxalite-related violence in the nine states that are significantly affected by Left wing extremism. Despite a decline in the number of incidents and marginal decline in total fatalities over the past year (2003 witnessed 546 incidents and 509 deaths whereas 2002 had seen 1465 incidents and 482 deaths), Left wing extremist violence spread into new areas through 2003. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |