Post-Election Situation-Our Tasks

Prepare the Party, PLGA and the people for the new brutal offensive being unleashed by the UPA government!!

The drama of elections to the 15^th Lok Sabha and three state Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Orissa, enacted at a massive cost of over Rs. 15,000 crores, had been the dominant event in the country for almost four months of the current year. An artificial atmosphere was built up by the media and the reactionary rulers by projecting this farcical drama as the biggest democratic exercise in the world with 714 million voters said to be choosing the next government.

In many ways, Election-2009 had been a record of sorts. Never before had India witnessed such a degree of apathy, aversion and disgust among the voters towards the Parliamentary elections as during Election-2009. Never before had the reactionary ruling classes and the media indulged in such a massive propaganda campaign spending hundreds of crores of rupees just to convince the voters that their votes "decide" the destiny of the country and that they should not stay away from the polls. Never before had elections been so much fragmented and unpredictable regarding the outcome. And never before had an election seen such mind-boggling non-stop publicity blitz in the electronic media and meaningless chatter that is completely devoid of any real issue facing the country and people. The Parties and the media were totally silent on the real issues facing the people and the country. To the vast majority of the people of India the elections were a meaningless, irrelevant, pseudo-democratic exercise that had only aggravated the casteist, communal, regional and factional strife and tensions across the length and breadth of the country.

None of the Parties had touched upon any issue of importance. The electronic media went on howling and speculating round-the-clock on irrelevant questions such as: Who will become the Prime Minister? Which party will emerge as the single largest Party? Which Party will get how many seats? Which coalition of parties will form the government? Who will align with whom during the elections? And how will be the shift in the allegiances after the declaration of results on May 16? And so on. The media channels had deliberately avoided going into the burning issues of the people for that would have meant calling into question the irrelevance of the very system in the daily lives of the people. This fact also showed how divorced and disconnected has the so-called democratic election become from the lives of the people. The poll boycott by the majority of the Indian people itself is an indicator of this truth.

In such a situation the reactionary rulers naturally became panicky with our Party's call for the boycott of elections. They tried by all means to foil our call and to recreate illusions about the sanctity of the vote and the virtues of parliamentary democracy: bollywood actors, cricket stars, industrialists, and other popular personalities were mobilized into this campaign to refurbish the image of parliamentary democracy; several NGOs were engaged to raise the "awareness" among the people and to convince the skeptics; websites and blogs were used to spread the lies. And to make the campaign look more credible some NGOs and media channels called on the people not to vote for criminal and corrupt elements but to choose sincere candidates who worked for the country's progress and so on. What the voter should do when all the candidates are corrupt or criminal, which usually is the case, is not answered.

The day the first phase of elections to the Lok Sabha was completed on April 16, the media tried to show how democracy had won against anarchy, how ballot proved to be superior to bullet, how people defied the Maoists and came forth to exercise their franchise braving the bullet, and such endless rhetoric. "Bullet vs ballot: Voters give mandate on Maoist-hit LS seats" wrote a paper. "Maoist warnings fail to deter voters in Red zone" claimed another pointing to the 45 per cent votes polled in Gaya district. "Despite red terror 50 % polling in Jharkhand" crowed another paper. "Ballot wins against Bullet" ran another headline. There is no limit to such hollow claims and empty phrases to prove that so-called democracy got the upper-hand in this sham drama. Chief Election Commissioner-designate Navin Chawla howled that "democracy triumphed over naxalism on April 16."

Election-2009 has earned the distinction of being the most discredited election held so far in the country. People everywhere, and not merely in the areas under the influence of our Party, resorted to boycott as a form of protest and struggle. Overall, the majority of the Indian people showed a higher level of consciousness this time by rejecting the contesting candidates, the political parties, and the pseudo-democratic parliamentary system. They gave the rulers sleepless nights, and all the tricks played by the reactionary rulers and their propaganda blitz and appeals to voters to exercise their "fundamental right" to vote, came to nought. More people stayed away from the polling booths than those who went to cast their votes. And even among those who voted the majority had little trust in the candidate or the party who can change loyalties after the votes are cast.

Of the 714 million total registered voters, hardly 50 % had actually cast their votes whether it was out of coercion, or monetary and material incentives, or caste, community, ethnic, regional considerations, or for other reasons. Of the total votes that were actually cast, the Congress, which obtained 206 seats and emerged as the single largest Party, had obtained a vote share of just about 29.67 per cent with an increase of 61 seats from the 2004 elections. The BJP lost 22 seats and received 19.29 per cent of vote share. BSP came third with its vote share of 6.27 % followed by the CPI(M) with 5.52 %. Thus the Congress, with just over a hundred million votes or roughly 15 % of the total votes, has formed the government with a few other Parties all of which had a combined share of not more than 5 to 6 per cent or another 20 million votes. Yet, our rulers want us to believe that it is a government of the majority. But can one call this process democracy when 85 % voters had rejected the so-called single largest party and yet have to put up with a government that is formed on a minority of votes? This stark fact has to be propagated widely to expose the myth of rule by majority.

The reactionaries always hush up the actual truth that the majority of the population has hardly any faith in the parliamentary system or the political parties that contest the election. The fact is those who reject this so-called parliamentary system, whether consciously or unconsciously, always constitute the majority. But recognition of this fact and propagating this would jeopardize the legitimacy of the ruling class to rule. Hence the entire political spectrum is united in underplaying this crucial fact and sings in chorus about the success of "parliamentary democracy" in India. Such a lie is indispensable for the survival of these political parties and the reactionary rulers they represent.

In our propaganda and education on the "victory of democracy" claimed by the rulers, we have to focus on how the very election exercise is an undemocratic exercise held under semi-feudal conditions where it is more the caste, communal, regional, ethnic, gender factors along with money power and muscle power that play the principal role in ensuring the victory of a candidate. The fact that 300 of the 543 MPs are declared crorepatis shows the role of money power in elections. We must show how notorious criminals and communal fascists had won the elections by utilizing these. The elections this time saw more number of criminals as MPs than any time in the past with 150 MPs having criminal cases and 73 having serious charges. The dissolved Parliament had 128 MPs with criminal cases and 55 of them facing serious charges. BJP and Congress vied with each other in the number of criminal MPs with 42 and 41 respectively.

Election Results and the Myth of a Decisive Mandate

With the declaration of election results on May 16 and the UPA securing a majority in Parliament a big hype is being created that people had given a "decisive mandate" for stability and economic reform i.e., liberalization, privatization and globalisation or LPG. Some election analysts and commentators as well as leaders like LK Advani had even gone as far as to predict that these elections marked the beginning of the end to the phenomenon of regional parties and that they foreshadowed a two-party system. The number of seats secured by the two biggest coalitions-the UPA and NDA-are shown as proof of this so-called emerging trend. However, nothing can be farther from truth. The election results prove neither their claims of stability and pro-LPG sentiment among the people nor the demise of the regional parties. An analysis of the voting pattern in the 15th Lok Sabha elections shows that the two biggest All India parties-the Congress and the BJP-are only relatively bigger regional parties than others. In several states these parties have a nominal presence while regional parties dominate the political scene.

The Congress and the BJP together received just 47 percent of the votes polled while the regional parties and the Left together obtained more than 50 per cent of the votes. The Congress had a ten per cent lead over the BJP compared to 4 per cent last time thereby giving it 206 seats. But the overall increase of vote share for the Congress from that of 2004 elections was just 3 per cent and the decline of BJP's vote share was 2.9 per cent. This marginal gain on one side and loss on the other sides is being interpreted by election pundits and experts as a decisive mandate. The vote share of the Congress is almost the same as in 1996 and 1999 and nearly 8 per cent less than in 1991. The myth gets more exposed when we analyse the showing of the so-called big parties in individual states.

Much hype was created about the revival of the Congress in the Hindi belt with its seat share in UP increasing from 9 seats in 2004 to 21 this time, and its voting percentage increasing from 12 to 18 per cent. The BSP which has been played down by the experts for getting just 20 seats had actually received 2.7 per cent more than last time with its vote share going up to 27.4 per cent in UP. In Bihar, another state in the Hindi heartland, the Congress obtained just two seats; in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand just one seat each; and 6 each in West Bengal, Orissa and Karnataka. In Maharashtra the Congress got 17 out of 48 but this gain too was on account of the MNS eating into the vote share of Shiv Sena; and in Andhra Pradesh the Chiranjeevi factor helped the Congress gain 33 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats and to get a majority in the Assembly though its vote share had fallen from 41.6 in 2004 to 39 per cent this time. In West Bengal it was the Trinamul which gained most from anti-Left sentiment while the Congress only played a second fiddle. The states where the Congress made significant gains were Punjab, Haryana, Kerala and Rajasthan while its performance was better than expected in BJP-ruled states of MP and Gujarat.

In fact, it was factors such as the entry of PRP into electoral politics in Andhra Pradesh and MNS in Maharashtra which had altered the balance in favour of the Congress by splitting the votes of TDP and Shiv Sena in the two states where the Congress had won almost a quarter of its seats. In AP, the Congress got just 1.75 % more votes than the Grand Alliance. Much of the 16.22 per cent vote share of the PRP and 1.8 % of vote share of Lok Satta was said to have been the traditional vote base of the TDP thus giving the Congress an advantage. To describe this as a positive vote for the performance of the Congress is as deceptive as saying the re-election of Narendra Modi in Gujarat was a positive vote for his development work as claimed by the BJP.

It is clear that the Congress and the BJP are only like two big regional parties. Regional parties like the JD(U) and BJD gained in Bihar and Orissa; BSP had increased its vote share; Trinamul gained in West Bengal. The BJD which got only 61 seats in the 2004 Assembly elections in alliance with the BJP which obtained 32 seats, fared better this time by contesting alone and won 103 seats. The BJP got just 6 seats in the Assembly elections. Naveen Patnaik's BJD made the gains only after it had dissociated itself from the BJP and its communal attacks in Khandamal.

The so-called Left Parties were the biggest losers. The CPI(M) faced a rout in West Bengal and Kerala where it obtained only 16 Lok Sabha seats against the 41 it had earlier thus losing 25 sitting MPs. In West Bengal the CPI(M) won only 9 out of the 32 seats it had contested in the state, its worst showing in the 32 years since it first rode to power in the state with other Left partners. The post-election analysis and conclusions drawn by the CPI and CPI(M) also endorse the logic of political pundits that the people had voted for stability.

The Third Front fell apart with the TRS first shifting allegiance to the BJP-led NDA soon after the last phase of elections and the BSP and JD(S) declaring unconditional support to the UPA after the declaration of results. The dream of Karat ad Yechuri of playing the role of a king-maker (broker) if not the king were dashed to the ground. In fact, so confident was the CPI(M) of playing a crucial role in the formation of a new government at the Centre that their leaders repeatedly asserted that no government can be formed without the support of the Third Front. The CPI(M) leader Sitharam Yechuri admitted that it was a mistake on the part of his Party to have formed the Third Front as a "cut & paste" alliance without testing the commitment of these parties. He termed the Parties of the Third Front as neither credible nor viable. The experiment with the so-called anti-BJP, anti-Congress secular forces conducted by the bankrupt Left collapsed like a pack of cards.

No single Party could mange to obtain a majority by itself. While the Congress received 206 seats out of the total 543, the BJP got 116 seats. As has been the dominant trend for over two decades it was only through a coalition of several Parties that a government could be formed at the Centre. And even the formation of the Union Cabinet has been a dog-fight among the various constituents of the UPA. There was a scramble for the cabinet posts with the DMK staying away sulking that its demands for five cabinet berths and four Ministers of state were not conceded. Mamata Banerjee had a hard bargaining and finally got the posts it wanted. The UPA is clearly a divided lot and has managed to show a semblance of unity after much bargaining and accommodation of its constituents in the posts they coveted. On May 22 the Prime Minister along with 18 other Ministers were sworn in. It was only on May 28 when the names of another 59 Ministers were announced that the DMK came around after it was given three Cabinet posts.

The results led to an intensification of wrangling and dog-fights within every Party and alliance including the UPA. The BJP chief LK Advani resigned as the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament taking responsibility for the debacle but was convinced within 24 hours to continue thus ending the drama. The pro-Narendra Modi lobby in BJP consisting of senior leaders like Arun Shourie, Arun Jaitley and Yashwant Sinha began recounting the prime ministerial qualities of Modi during the election campaign notwithstanding the fact that just a few days before the Supreme Court had asked the SIT to investigate into the involvement of Modi in the 2002 Gujarat genocide and to submit a report. Now there is a strong section in BJP which thinks it was wrong to have projected Advani as PM candidate or to have endorsed Varun's inflammatory communal speech against Muslim community. With the line of non-BJP, non-Congress secular Third Front-the brainchild of Prakash Karat-taking a severe beating there has been a virtual revolt against him in the Party and demand for his replacement as the chief of the Party.

While it is a fact that the Congress acquired more seats than it had earlier and the UPA received a majority in the 15^th Lok Sabha more out of default than support for its policies as claimed by them, it is also an equally important fact that the Congress is now in a better position as it is not as desperately dependent on the allies as before. With the BSP, RJD and SP extending support even if they are not part of the UPA government, thereby taking the total MPs supporting the Manmohan Singh government to 322, the Congress will be more assertive vis-à-vis its allies, more authoritarian and repressive in its policies.

The so-called decisive mandate is meant to justify the cruel state repression and the imperialist-dictated LPG

As regards the claim of some election pundits that it was a vote for economic reform (a euphemism for selling away the natural and human resources of the country to the imperialist MNCs and the corporate big business), we can say it is a figment of their imagination or a deliberate distortion of the facts. Is the BJP lagging behind Congress in carrying out the so-called economic reforms at the behest of the imperialists and the CBB? Is a LK Advani, Arun Jaitley or a Narendra Modi any less trustworthy in the eyes of the imperialists and the CBB than a Manmohan Singh or Chidambaram or YS Reddy? If so one would not find all the top comprador business houses in the country and the MNCs praising Hindu fascist Modi and queuing up to open up their companies in Gujarat or rushing to exploit the natural resources in Raman Singh's police state of Chattisgarh. In West Bengal, ironically, it was Mamata's Trinamul Congress which, for its own reasons, had bitterly opposed the "economic reforms" initiated by the Left Front government led by the CPI(M). Tatas had to shift their car factory from Singur and the Left Front government had to withdraw its plans to hand over the land to the big business houses in Nandigram.

One cannot differentiate Buddhadeb's government in West Bengal with a Congress or a BJP government in any other state in the matter of the neo-liberal reforms. In fact, the CPI(M)-led government had gone a step ahead by acquiring land for industrialists like Tatas, Jindals, etc and granting it free or for a nominal price. Then how did Trinamul gain in West Bengal if the people had voted for "economic reform"? Anyone with minimum common sense would not venture to draw such ridiculous and hilarious conclusions as our election pundits, media commentators and political leaders have been doing.

The media is carrying on a non-stop hype regarding the decisive mandate for reform and asserting with glee that Manmohan Singh government, in its second stint in office, has a free hand to carry out reforms without any hindrance whatsoever, unlike last time when it had to cow down before the demands of the Left.

The logic of decisive mandate for economic reform is deliberately put forth according to a pre-hatched conspiracy of the reactionary ruling classes and international capital. By placing this logic and repeating it ad nauseum, these exploiters want to justify and legitimize their agenda of globalization, liberalisation and complete privatization which had become unpopular and drew militant mass resistance in many areas. Showing the logic of decisive mandate for "reform", they are clamouring for carrying out the agenda of economic reforms at a faster pace.

Hence it is very much necessary to effectively counter the argument that it was a mandate for stability and economic reform. The real cruel essence of this argument has to be exposed; and all attempts to step up repression in the form of state terror and state-sponsored terror with the claim of bringing stability have to be unitedly opposed and militantly resisted. Likewise, its attempts to implement the traitorous, anti-people, imperialist-dictated economic reforms have to be bitterly opposed and militantly resisted. A broad-based mass movement has to be built against privatization, against handing over land and resources to the MNCs and CBB in the name of SEZs, against displacement of the peasants and other sections of people through so-called development projects that benefit the imperialists and big business, and so on. Through such militant mass movements we have to show how the people of our country are bitterly and totally opposed to the imperialist-dictated economic reforms.

Emergence of election boycott as a significant trend

Boycott of polls has emerged as a dominant form of struggle in the elections held in April-May 2009. And our Party has led this struggle in several states in the country. All the antics to refurbish the image of a system that had lost all credibility in the eyes of the vast majority of the Indian population and to pour new life into a rotten, stinking institution called Parliament had failed to create any interest whatsoever in the voter. The most publicized campaign by the NGOs, film actors, industrialists and eminent personalities in Mumbai saw only 43.52 per cent of the voters turning up, the lowest ever in the city.

Overall, the majority of the voters this time showed a greater awareness by staying away from the polls despite the 24-hour non-stop appeals by the media to the voters to exercise their franchise. In Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, MP, Orissa, and Kashmir, polling has been quite low with more than 50% of the voters rejecting the elections. If elections were held without the shadow of the gun, the percentage of votes polled would have been much lower everywhere. The presence of the police, para-military and army does make a difference for it creates a sense of fear and apprehension among the voters that if they did not vote they would be singled out and victimized. There are several cases of people being herded together and driven to the polling booths to cast their votes. In Kashmir, with a population of just over 80 lakhs and six seats to the Parliament, election was held in five phases! Just to ensure that the security forces overwhelm the voters and thereby ensuring a greater percentage of votes. Every visual of the elections in Kashmir Valley showed a sea of security personnel with a few civilian voters here and there. And hardly any of the faces lined up at the polling booths exhibited a feeling of enthusiasm or interest. The feeling on their faces was clearly one of fear and apathy. It is not difficult to understand as to how and why they came to the polling booths if one knows the ground reality in Kashmir which is a territory under Indian Army occupation just as Iraq.

Our Boycott Campaign

The reactionary rulers had tried by every means at their disposal to foil the call for boycott of elections given by our Party. They made elaborate plans to counter our campaign: elections in most of the areas in our guerrilla zones and main areas of armed struggle were held in the first phase itself. Two dozen choppers were pressed into service in Maoist-dominated States for surveillance and to provide operational support to the security forces in countering the Maoist revolutionaries who had given a call for boycott of the poll.

The aim of the ruling classes in holding the elections in our areas in the very first phase was to deploy the central forces several weeks prior to the elections and create an atmosphere of terror among the population so that polling is enforced in the areas of Maoist dominance thereby proving the victory of democracy over terrorism. Thus the plan of the EC was: deploy all the available central forces for at least three weeks in the areas under the influence of Maoists; stage as many fake encounters as possible in order to eliminate Maoist cadres prior to the election justifying these in the name of maintaining a free and fair atmosphere for the voters; establish area domination and achieve better coordination with the anti-Naxal commando units and special forces in various states; and enforce voting under the shadow of the gun thereby ensuring a higher percentage of polling and a higher score for democracy in India.

Notwithstanding the presence of a huge contingent of central and state police forces for over three weeks in the areas under Maoist influence and their attempts at area domination, our Party, PLGA, revolutionary organs of people's power in the countryside, and mass organsiations carried out a mass political propaganda campaign besides undertaking several tactical counter-offensives against the gun-toting enemy forces who were desperately trying to coerce people to vote. Our propaganda campaign was so effective that there was hardly any electioneering by the political parties in most parts of the countryside in Dandakaranya (Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Bastar and Kanker districts, and some parts of Rajandgaon district); in many districts of Bihar and Jharkhand where the polling percentage had come down drastically from that in 2004; in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia and near-total boycott in Lalgarh area in West Bengal; in Malkangiri, Koraput, Gajapathi, Ganjam, Rayagada and other districts in Orissa; and other places.

Heroic tactical counter-offensives by our PLGA unnerves the reactionary rulers

The ten days that ended in the first phase of election on April 16 witnessed one of the biggest and most successful campaigns by Maoists in the electoral history of the country. They saw massive strikes by PLGA guerrillas across the states of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Maharashtra. The period also saw mass political propaganda across the length and breadth of the country by our Party calling upon the people to boycott the elections and to establish their own revolutionary-democratic organs of political power as in the vast tracts of Dandakaranya. The ten days became a virtual nightmare for the reactionary rulers of India and the media commented that the violent attacks by Maoists prior to, and on the day of, the first phase of the polls showed that it was "one of the bloodiest elections in recent times". "They (Maoists) are doing everything to disrupt elections," howled the home minister P Chidambaram in a Press meet.

The Election Commission, under the guidance of the Union Home Ministry, drew up an elaborate plan especially for the guerrilla zones and other areas under Maoist influence. It decided to concentrate all the central forces in these areas right from the day of announcement of notification of election dates i.e., at least three to four weeks in advance, in what it described as a plan to achieve area domination by the police and central forces prior to polling. It meant carrying out as many fake encounters as possible in order to eliminate Maoist cadres prior to the election and justifying these in the name of maintaining a free and fair atmosphere for the voters to cast their votes freely. Hence polling was conducted in most of these areas in the first phase itself. Due to this, the state's repressive forces had ample time to create terror in the areas whereas in other areas where polls were held in the subsequent phases they could be deployed for hardly a week.

Despite the massive deployment of the central forces and concentration of the entire police force in the states in the Maoist-dominated areas, and their desperate attempts to create an atmosphere of terror among the people, they could not achieve their objective. The people led by the CPI(Maoist) and PLGA resisted the onslaught by the central-state police forces, carried out daring attacks on these mercenary forces, and foiled their Operation Area Domination. No candidate or Party representative dared to venture into these areas for electioneering. Only Maoist posters, banners and leaflets were seen in vast tracts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra besides parts of other states in the country. In the Maoist guerrilla attacks during the period starting from April 6 when three C-60 commandos were wiped out in Maharashtra to the annihilation of a BSF jawan near Kone village in Latehar after the completion of the polling on April 16, a total of 43 central-state forces were wiped out in Maoist counter-offensives. By the time the last phase of polling was completed on May 13, our PLGA carried out several more attacks on the enemy forces annihilating a total of over 70 enemy troops. As on June 12, when the present circular of our Politbureau is being released, a total of 112 police personnel, most of them central forces, were wiped out in the heroic actions carried out by our PLGA guerrillas.

Some of the major counter-offensives during the election period were: the Mugner ambush in Dhanora tehsil of Gadchiroli on April 6 wiping out three C-60 commandos; land-mine explosion near Bijapur on April 7 n which the district SP narrowly escaped while two policemen died; the daring attack on the CRPF-police force near Minta village under Chintagufa PS in Dantewada on April 10 in which 11 CRPF personnel including one Deputy Commandant and a Sub-Inspector were wiped out; the ambush in Khunti in Bihar eliminating 5 jawans on April 11 on the day of the visit of Sonia Gandhi to the district; wiping out 11 CISF jawans in a daring attack by our guerrillas on a well-guarded armoury in South Asia's biggest bauxite mines of NALCO in Damanjodi in Orissa's Koraput district on April 12; the daring attack by PLGA on a BSF camp in Rohtas district of Bihar in the intervening night of April 14/15; the April 15 attack on the CRPF personnel in Badhania Ghati in Latehar district of Jharkhand which wiped out two jawans and injured several others; attack on a bus carrying BSF personnel in Latehar when they were returning after the first phase of polling on April 16 wiping out six BSF jawans; annihilation of another BSF jawan in a mine explosion in the same district on April 16; annihilation of a homeguard and a policeman in Sighpur under Banke Bazaaar PS in Gaya; annihilation of the candidate of regional 'Samruddha Odisha' party for the Assembly elections in Malkangiri on April 9 coinciding with the visit of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the district.

In the second phase of polling to the Lok Sabha elections on April 23 our guerrillas triggered a landmine blast in Muzaffarpur district of North Bihar wiping out four policemen, including a sub-inspector; in Dantewada seven policemen were wiped out in an ambush near Vinjaram base camp on May 6; annihilation of two leaders of BJP, Darabara singh Mandavi in Rajnandgaon district and another Narayan Haldar in Koilbeda; annihilation of Farasgaon SI in a daring day-light attack in the Farasgaon market in Narayanpur district on May 7; wiping out of 12 CRPF jawans on May 10th in a daring attack in Dhamtari district in Chattisgarh; and several more actions on a smaller scale. Over a hundred policemen were injured in all these incidents carried out during the period of election.

There were some unfortunate incidents too such as the death of five polling officials also along with two policemen in Rajnandgaon district of Chattisgarh, three in West Bengal, and also in Jharkhand. We lose the sympathy of the people through such incidents and the enemy will try to utilize these mistakes to turn the people against us and to justify his brutal offensive against Maoist revolutionaries. Hence the serious mistakes committed by our comrades due to which innocent lives were lost should be thoroughly reviewed and the comrades responsible for this should be warned and if it is proved to be gross negligence disciplinary action should be initiated against those responsible.

Centre's priorities: A brutal Fascist military and economic offensive

As soon as he assumed office as Prime Minster, Manmohan Singh declared that the foremost priorities before his new government at the Centre were: tackling terrorism and Left-wing extremism; and bringing the ailing economy on to right track. Home Minister Chidambaram was even more forthright. He declared that the Centre was determined to deal with Left-wing extremism with an iron hand. Without mincing words he made clear his government's goals: first carry out police action to flush out Naxalites; then follow it up with development measures. This is a very important point to take note of as the entire stress is on police action or military solution. So-called development is sought to be carried out only after carrying out massacres and establishing peace of the graveyard. Chidambaram also said that para-military forces would only play a secondary role in Kashmir which means some of these central forces would be withdrawn from Kashmir and redeployed in our areas of armed struggle. Terrorism and "Left-wing extremism" are used by the reactionary ruling classes as a pretext to step up their fascist offensive on the people at large. This is necessary for the reactionary rulers in order to enforce their imperialist-dictated anti-people market fundamentalist policies on a reluctant population.

We have to understand that our revolutionary war is a cruel class war. The reactionary rulers will show no mercy in suppressing the revolutionaries and the masses of people who support them. The principal instrument in their hands is the oppressive state machine-police, para-military, military, jails, torture chambers and so on. They aim to contain the Maoist movement and all struggles of the masses principally through military means and go to any extent committing mass murders, tortures, arrests, abductions and illegal detentions, mass rape of women, use of private armed militias or vigilante squads, destroying entire villages and rendering lakhs of people homeless, carrying out psychological war, etc. And, assisted by the imperialists, they have been refining their counter-insurgency tactics as part of their LIC strategy, continuously increasing and modernizing the police, para-military and other armed forces, deploying more and more battalions in the areas of armed struggle, spending huge sums for setting up and further strengthening the intelligence machinery and informer network, setting up scores of private gangs, and so on. The experience of LTTE's setback in Sri Lanka is very important for us to study and take lessons. The mistake of LTTE lay in its lack of study of the changes in the enemy tactics, capabilities, international support and open assistance by imperialist powers, etc i.e., an underestimation of the enemy along with an overestimation of its own forces and capabilities.

The baton of terrorism-whether it is branded as Islamic terrorism or Left-wing terrorism-is very much necessary for the rulers to unleash the worst forms of state terror and state-sponsored terror. Just as a George Bush tried to justify the inhuman atrocities by his CIA and mercenary troops in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and several torture chambers in the name of containing terrorism and his 'global war on terror' which itself is a product of the criminal brains of the military-industrial elites ruling the US, our Manmohan Singhs and Chidambarams too justify, in the name of containing the "threat of terrorism and Left-wing extremism", their savage, unconstitutional salwa judum in Chattisgarh, Sendra in Jharkhand, various mercenary senas in Bihar, and the limitless atrocities by the CRPF, ITBP, BSF, ERF, and other central para-military forces jointly with Greyhounds, SOG, STF, C-60 commandos, and local police of various states. Burning of adivasi hamlets, displacement of lakhs of adivasis from their traditional lands and homes, mass murders of youth, torture and rape of women, destruction of houses, crops and other property of the poor adivasis, forced closure of the weekly bazaars, are all justified as collateral damage in the so-called "determined fight" against terrorism.

On April 28 the fascist Raman Singh regime in Chattisgarh imposed a ban on the CPI(Maoist) and six other mass organizations in the state. These are: Kisan Mazdoor Sangh, Krantikari Mahila Sangh, Krantikari Kisan Committee, Janathan Sarkar, Mahila Mukti Manch, Krantikari Balak Sangh. The ban was imposed for one year by invoking the Public Security Act. While fake encounters, mass murders and arrests of innocent adivasis have been going on without a let up irrespective of whether there exists a ban or not, the imposition of the ban is meant to scare away the democratic and civil rights organizations and individuals from condemning the state and state-sponsored atrocities on Maoist revolutionaries and innocent adivasis in the name of sympathising with the banned organizations.

Thus the unfolding state terror and state-sponsored terror under Sonia-Manmohan-Chidambaram combine will be far more brutal, deadly and savage than under any other regime hitherto witnessed. Just as the reactionary fascist rulers everywhere carry out such savagery by imposing curfews, not permitting media personnel and feeding information and police version selectively, the criminals who have been re-elected to power at the Centre are conspiring to carry out the same in the forests of Maad (or Abhujmaad as is known to outside world). All the preparations are nearing completion on a war-footing.

Let us prepare the entire Party, PLGA and the masses at large to defeat the criminal plan of the central-state governments to launch a massive brutal fascist offensive against Maad

In the past few months, particularly from its re-election in November 2008 elections to state assembly in Chatisgarh, Raman Singh government had intensified its attack on the revolutionary movement. Abducting militia and mass organization members and even ordinary youth from the villages, torturing and murdering them, raping adivasi women, have become a common feature in Chatisgarh. Singaram massacre of 18 adivasis by Raman Singh-Manmohan Singh's mercenary police on January 8, 2009 stands out as an example of the brutal face of the state and central governments that have the least regard for the Indian Constitution and provisions of law. Abducting and murdering people is the meaning of 'rule of law' in Raman Singh-Manmohan Singh's dictionary. Several more mass killings and indiscriminate attacks on adivasi villages such as the murder of five militia members in Dondem Paara hamlet in Indravati area on January 24 revealed how brutal the reactionary rulers can become when faced with a threat to their exploitative, oppressive rule.

After the daring ambush and wiping out of 12 policemen near Risgaon in Dhamtari, Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar assured the media that he would suppress the Maoists within one year or else will resign from his post. Raman Singh declared that there is no scope of holding talks with the Maoists and that his government is prepared to take on the Maoists in a straight fight. DGP Vishwaranjan, who was asked to cut short his long leave and take charge, boasted off that he would suppress the Naxal movement in Bastar within six months if the Centre provided him with 55 battalions. Joint meetings between the top police brass of the states of Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Maharashtra are taking place more frequently to co-ordinate their attacks.

At around the time of our successful counter-offensive in Dhamtari, a delegation from the American consulate had arrived in Raipur and had consultations with the chief minister, representatives of the government as well as the opposition congress. The American officials enquired regarding the steps taken by the government in suppressing the Naxals and also on the potentialities of making capital investments in Chattisgarh. It is not a mere coincidence that soon after these secret discussions with the US delegation the plans of launching an attack on Maad region have come out in the open.

A blue-print for a massive military offensive was prepared by the Centre for gaining an upper-hand over the Maoists. A senior officer was appointed in Chattisgarh by the Centre for coordination of the CRPF forces and local police. All-round preparations are in the final stage for launching the massive brutal offensive on the guerrilla zones and guerrilla bases. The Governor of Chattisgarh, ESL Narasimhan-a former top official of the IB- has been busily carrying out secret parleys with the Union Home Minister, Army and para-military officials and bureaucrats in Delhi in the second week of June. He has been impressing upon the Centre for the immediate dispatch of several battalions of CRPF and other central forces to Maad. The scanning of the entire area by satellites is almost on the verge of completion and the satellite images and the concrete topographical map of entire Maad will be ready in another month. Based on this map complete with all hamlets, forest tracks, water points, etc the police and central forces will carry out their operations. They are also claiming that preparations are also on to check the retreat of Maoist guerrillas into neighbouring areas in Jharkhand and Orissa.

Maad is home to one of the oldest indigenous tribes known as Madia gonds who have survived to this day preserving their way of life, culture, customs etc. The UPA govt at the Centre and Raman Singh govt in the state have drawn up a plan to create a reign of terror in this area, burn and destroy tribal hamlets, and drive them out of the area to govt-organised camps as it had done in Dantewara and Bijapur. It is thus conspiring to vacate the Madia adivasis from the area thereby endangering the way of life, culture, customs and resources of one of the oldest surviving tribes of India.

Encompassing roughly an area of around 4,000 sq kms Maad is one division of Dandakaranya. Adivasis residing in this region have a heroic history of militant armed resistance against British and other exploiters. The spirit of Gundadur still prevails and every year madia gonds celebrate the martyrdom of Gundadur and the anniversary of Bhumkal rebellion which he led against British imperialism in 1910.

To justify its proposed attack on Maad the BJP government is propagating that Maad has become the military HQ of the Maoists. The fascist Raman Singh government in the state, with the active assistance of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, had unleashed the notorious salwa judum by arming vigilante gangs since June 2005. And now it is itching to directly send the police and central forces into Maad and unleash similar terror in accordance with its policy of "Loot all! Kill all! Destroy all!"

As our CC had pointed out several times in the past the reactionary rulers are having their greedy eyes on the mineral wealth of the adivasi areas right from Bankura-Purulia-Midnapur to Vishakha-Srikakulam Agency in north Andhra. That is why they have been crying hoarse that they are losing control over the natural resources of the country due to Maoist presence in the adivasi areas which the Centre had named as the "Red Corridor".

Prime Minister himself focused on this real aim of the reactionary rulers in launching the brutal offensive against adivasi population. Commenting on the danger posed by "Left-wing extremism" he said on June 7 that Naxals are controlling the mineral wealth and other resources of vast backward regions in the country. Mittals, Tats, Jindals, Essars and the like are offering huge funds for the suppression of the Maoists so as to swallow the entire resources of the region without any hindrance. That is the rationale behind the proposed attack on Maad and the decision to create a blood-bath. To justify this brutal offensive the rulers have also been playing up their fabricated lies that Naxals are against development. Just as development (or rather the obstruction to development by Maoists) was made into an issue when the notorious salwa judum was launched by Mahendra Karma of the Congress and the Raman Singh government in June 2005, they are trying to show that Maoists are destroying schools, roads, industries, etc and keeping the region in backwardness.

We have to once again prepare the people of the area to resist the marauders and mercenaries sent by Sonia-Manmohan-Chidambaram combine to subdue them, destroy their culture, and loot the resources of the region for the benefit of a handful of exploiters. This time the fight will be more long-drawn and more bitter than the one against the British imperialist armies.
Every proposal placed by BJP's Raman Singh government in Chattisgarh before the Centre is readily accepted by the Congress-led UPA government. So much is the cooperation between the two sides that some reporters commented that it was very difficult to see that there were two different parties in the state and Centre. The Congress and BJP became indistinguishable in the tone, tenor and war against the Maoists. Never before was such a degree of coordination and cooperation achieved between the Centre and state on the Naxal issue.

Post-Election situation and its relation to our tactics

The fact that the Congress-led UPA has been re-elected, with the Congress improving its seat tally and in a position to play a more decisive role compared to its last stint in office, has given the UPA, and its biggest constituent Congress, greater scope for unleashing a more brutal and bigger military offensive against our Party and movement. In the last government, where it had a smaller number of seats, the Congress was totally dependent on its various allies in order to continue in power, and the Left too exerted some amount of pressure on Manmohan Singh government for almost four years. But today Manmohan Singh's government has acquired a majority with the support of just four other Parties. And other Parties like BSP, SP and RJD have expressed support to the government from outside. They will act as reserves if any of the existing partners in the UPA opt out. Thus overall, we can say that the present government will remain relatively more stable than the preceding one and will be in a position to carry out the pro-imperialist policies and suppression of the revolutionary-democratic movements more ruthlessly. We have to keep in mind that the results have given scope for the UPA government to enact more draconian legislation, and implement more fascist measures and suppression of the people's struggles.

Besides, the current political situation in South Asia arising out of the geo-strategic needs of US imperialism is also likely to provide some flexibility to the rulers to use the state's forces for carrying out fascist repression on revolutionary struggles, nationality movements and other people's movements. The situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating rapidly in spite of deploying more US troops after Barack Obama took charge. The number of casualties suffered by NATO troops is growing higher and higher like a spiral with every passing week. There is virtually no government in Afghanistan in the real sense of the term and most of it is under Taliban's control. The supply routes for NATO troops are continuously disrupted by the Taliban which has close coordination with the Pakistani Taliban. In Pakistan too the Taliban has control over large tracts of Northwest frontier Province and Swat Valley with extensive network throughout the country. Hence the US imperialists have been exerting pressure on Pakistan to concentrate all its forces on the western border to finish off the Taliban. The US cannot think of losing Afghanistan which is the gateway to the oil-rich Central Asian region. It is also essential for the US to keep South Asia under its thumb as part of its designs for global hegemony and its rivalry with China, the newly emerging global competitor to the US.

It is trying to mediate between India and Pakistan to reduce the tensions between the two countries so that both can free their forces from the borders and concentrate on what the US imperialists think are the real threat-the Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist forces, Maoist revolutionaries, anti-American movements and other people's movements. If the Americans succeed, and most likely they would, then the Indian ruling classes will have some flexibility on the western front and in Kashmir. It can relieve some of the central forces from Kashmir and re-deploy them in our guerrilla zones and other areas of armed struggle. The setback suffered by the LTTE and the Tamil liberation struggle in Sri Lanka also has a negative effect on the revolutionary movement in India as well as South Asia and the world at large.

We have to correctly grasp this objective situation in the post-election period in order to evolve correct tactics and tasks.

Immediate Tasks

In order to defeat the new offensive by the enemy and to protect the gains of our people's war it is very essential to rouse the masses throughout the country, stand up in support of the struggles in Dandakaranya, Bihar-Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka and other places, and build a broad-based countrywide mass movement against the fascist offensive by the reactionary rulers with the active assistance and guidance of the imperialists. To defend our guerrilla bases in Dandakaranya and BJ and to advance the armed struggle in the guerrilla zones we have to carry out the following immediate tasks:

Prepare the people, the Party and the PLGA politically to confront the brutal enemy onslaught; educate the people regarding the scale and intensity of the enemy offensive, its cruel nature and the need for enormous sacrifices on the part of the Party, PLGA and the masses; take initiative to unite with other struggling organizations and forces to forge strong united fronts on every issue and at every level possible; enthuse them with the daring counter-offensives carried out by our forces in various parts of the country and prepare them to undertake similar operations; enhance the initiative and involvement of the masses in fighting and defeating the superior enemy forces. The manner in which we had defeated the salwa judum should be projected as a model to be emulated elsewhere.

Prepare and mobilize the entire Party, PLGA and the people for carrying out tactical counter-offensives and various forms of armed resistance and inflict severe losses to the enemy forces; attacks should be organized with meticulous planning against the state's khaki and olive-clad terrorist forces, SPOs, police informants, and other counter-revolutionaries and enemies of the people; these attacks should be carried out in close coordination with, and in support of, the armed resistance of the masses; these should be linked to the seizure of political power and establishment of base areas; it is the combined attacks by all the three wings of the PLGA and the people at large that can ensure the defeat of the enemy offensive;

Purge the non-proletarian trends prevailing in our Party and the movement by conducting Rectification Campaign in an effective manner so as to provide capable proletarian leadership to the Indian revolution;

Protect the leadership and preserve the Party cadres and PLGA fighters by avoiding unnecessary losses; expand our Party by recruiting new members and train up comrades at every level to build new leadership; rectify the weaknesses in the existing mechanism and strengthen it by avoiding everything that is likely to be exposed to the enemy through betrayers, arrested persons and our Party records;

The aim of the enemy will be to isolate us from the broad masses engaging us in continuous military engagements, then to pin us down militarily using his superior armed force and other infrastructure; we have to foil this tactic of the enemy by taking up the basic issues of the people, mobilising them into militant mass struggles, taking up wide propaganda exposing state terror and state-sponsored terror and making serious attempts to build broad-based united fronts with all those forces who oppose the state's brutal offensive;

Though the enemy is itching to suppress our Party and movement by deploying a huge force in all our areas, he has severe difficulties in implementing this at present; he has plans to increase the number of central forces in the next few years, to set up and train special forces like the Cobras, but in the immediate context it is quite difficult for the Centre to send the forces required by each state to control our movement. Keeping this in mind, we have to further aggravate the situation and create more difficulties to the enemy forces by expanding our guerrilla war to new areas on the one hand and intensifying the mass resistance in the existing areas so as to disperse the enemy forces over a sufficiently wider area; hence the foremost task in every state is to intensify the war in their respective states while in areas of intense enemy repression there is need to expand the area of struggle by proper planning by the concerned committees; tactical counter-offensives should be stepped up and also taken up in new areas so as to divert a section of the enemy forces from attacking our guerrilla bases and organs of political power.

Any mistake on our part will be utilized by the enemy to isolate us, rally a section of the masses, and also justify his attacks on us by pointing to our mistakes, magnifying them and branding them as anti-people and terroristic; hence we should take extra precautions not to take up reckless actions, not to cause damage to people's property or cause inconvenience to the people by our actions, and to apologize for our mistakes promptly assuring the people that such mistakes will not be repeated in future;

As far as the offensive on Maad is concerned we have to mobiise all adivasi organizations throughout the country to protest against the destruction of one of the oldest tribes of India; we have to mobilize all forces cutting across all political and other lines to save Maad region;

The conspiracy of the ruling classes in planning their attack on Maad should be exposed thoroughly and its real intentions and motives should be laid bare. The link between Raoghat mines and the attack on Maad should be explained and the people should be educated as to how the entire region is being handed over to the comprador big business houses like the Tatas in Lohandiguda, Essar in Dhurli, NMDC's proposed steel plants in Nagarnaar and Dilimili, Raoghat mines and Bodhghat project. The bigger conspiracy of the reactionary rulers to extend mining from Raoghat to the innumerable hills in Maad and to loot the natural mineral wealth of the region should be exposed and a broad-based movement should be built against displacement.

Comrades!

Today we are facing an extraordinary situation.
Immense possibilities are unfolding in front of our eyes to advance the revolution at a rapid pace. The entire world is caught in neck-deep crisis and there seems to be no let up particularly since the past one year after the US was engulfed in the worst-ever economic crisis in its history. Industry after industry is closing down throwing out millions of workers onto the streets. Poverty and homelessness, starvation and destitution have become a global phenomenon providing an excellent condition for advancing the people's struggles and revolutions everywhere. National liberation struggles are erupting in various regions.

On the other hand, the reactionaries led by US imperialism have unleashed the most brutal fascist offensive in the economic, social, cultural and political spheres using brute force. In West Asia, the focal point of national liberation struggle in the contemporary world, the situation continues to resemble a burning volcano with Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine engulfed in flames of national liberation. The fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting heavy blows on the imperialist invaders and their armies of occupation. The Palestinian fighters led by Hamas in Gaza Strip and Hizbollah in Lebanon have shown enormous courage, put up bold resistance to the Israeli Zionist aggression and bombardment of their territories.

In South Asia, the second focal point of national liberation struggles in the contemporary world, the situation has continued to be explosive with militant uprisings in several parts of Pakistan such as the Swat Valley, North West Provinces, FATA, and other regions. In Sri Lanka, non-stop aerial bombardment of civilian areas has created graveyard in the Tamil-inhabited areas of Eelam. Lakhs of people are displaced from their homes and thousands of LTTE fighters including its leader Prabhakaran were killed. In Nepal, the Indian expansionists with the backing of US imperialists, have interfered to overthrow the government headed by the CPN(M).

In India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Turkey and elsewhere deadly attacks are launched on revolutionary struggles. Thousands of people, national liberation fighters, and Maoist revolutionaries are massacred by the reactionary fascist forces. As the crisis deepens and people's dissatisfaction is rising at an unheard of pace, the reactionary offensive too is being stepped up at an unprecedented pace. Such is the situation in the contemporary world that is unfolding before our eyes.

Let us utilize the excellent situation arising out of the ever-deepening crisis in the world economy, overcome the negative factors like the setback in Sri Lanka, lull in Nepal, massive offensive on Islamic jihadist forces in Pakistan.

Let us prepare the entire Party, PLGA and mass organizations to face the brutal offensive the enemy is planning to launch on a massive scale in our areas of armed struggle! Let us mobilize the people politically and militarily to face this new offensive, strengthen and expand our military formations, consolidate and expand our areas of struggle and build strong solidarity movements throughout the country.

Politbureau

CPI (Maoist)

June 12, 2009