Finally, the government has banned the CPI (Maoist) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, calling it a terrorist organization. It was a step long overdue. CPI (Maoist), which is the main Naxal group in the country, has been bracketed with 34 other organizations including LeT and SIMI who are in the list of banned outfits. The outfit came into being as a result of merger between the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War (also known as the People's War Group or PWG) on October 14, 2004. The merger gave the CPI-Maoist a pan-Indian presence, bringing the Maoists closer to their objective of 'liberating' their proposed Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ), which extends from Nepal through Bihar in the North to Dandakaranya region (forest areas of Central India) and Andhra Pradesh in the South. The merger also saw intensification in naxal activities leading to extension of Maoist reach in new area and continuous subversive activities in what came to known as ‘Red- Corridor'. The inaction on the part of central and state governments which repeatedly tried to appease Maoist elements through varying offers of cease fire, rehabilitation and general amnesty further emboldened them resulting in more lethal strikes.
After Singur and Nandigram, the violent incidents in Lalgarh now further exposes the Left politics in the country. Now it seems that cup of woes for the Left is full. In addittion to dissidence within the party ranks and file and corruption charges against CPM state secretary in Kerala, the Left Front government in West Bengal is facing one of the biggest naxal challenges in the state. While it used to proudly flaunt its more than three decades of uninterrupted rule in West Bengal, the recent developments underlines the unrest in the state with the restive people now taking up arms to rescue themselves from authoritarian party rule which believes in ruthlessly muzzling the voice of dissent in the state. Left Front's obsession to rule by party even in democracy made it to crush any opposition or potential threat by using police administration in contravention to the norms of parliamentary democracy. In the past also its election victories were considered suspicious owing to the ‘expertise' gained by its cadres in rigging the poll. The resentment of the people has culminated in the poll debacle for Left Front in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. That the force had to be called in to bail out the Left Front government speaks volumes of the resentment that persists among the masses. Absence of any democratic body in the area gave Maoists the opportunity to mobilize the resentful masses against the state government which tried to control the situation through police atrocities. Left is itself to blame for the absence of any democratic force in the are for it never allowed its opponents to grow and always weeded out all sorts of opposition through force.
The anarchy in Lalgarh is symbolic of left politics which is based on violence and totalitarian concepts. The bickering within Left Front over the issue of banning CPI (Maoist) further explains the ideological dilemma and confusion within the left. Accepting democracy in letters is not enough; embracing it in spirit is all the more important.
|
(0 vote)