Communist Party of India

Communist Party of India (Maoist)
Leader	Muppala Lakshmana Rao under nom de guerre "Ganapati"
Founded	September 21, 2004
Ideology	Communism, Anti-Revisionist Marxism-Leninism, Maoism
Website
People's March

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a violent underground Maoist political party in India. It was founded on September 21, 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India. The merger was announced to the public on October 14 the same year. In the merger a provisional central committee was constituted, with PW leader Ganapati as General Secretary.

The CPI (Maoist) are often referred to as Naxalites in reference to the violent Naxalbari insurrection by radical Maoists in West Bengal in 1967. The popularly elected UPA government on 22 June 2009 banned the CPI (Maoist) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, calling it a terrorist organisation. Following the ban, the Maoists will now be liable for arrested under the UAPA.^{[clarification needed]} After the ban they are barred from holding rallies, public meetings and demonstrations, and their offices if any, will be sealed and bank account frozen. Earlier, the union home minister, Mr P.Chidambaram had asked the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to ban the Maoists following the Lalgarh Violence.^[1] As of 2009, this group is present in 20 states and responsible for 90% of the left-wing violence in India.^[2]

Contents 1 Ideology 2 Governance Tactics 3 Funding 4 Military Tactics 5 Using cannibalism to strike terror among tribals 6 Organization 7 Status 8 Recent Violent activities 9 Opposition to the Maoist 10 International connections 11 Front Organisations 12 References 13 External links

Ideology

Communism in India

Communist Party of India AITUC - AIKS - AIYF AISF - NFIW - BKMU

Communist Party of India (Marxist) CITU - AIKS - DYFI SFI - AIDWA - GMP

Naxalbari uprising Communist Party of India (M-L) Liberation - New Democracy Janashakti - PCC - 2nd CC Red Flag - Class Struggle Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Socialist Unity Centre of India AIUTUC - AIMSS AIDYO - AIDSO

A. K. Gopalan E. M. S. Namboodiripad B. T. Ranadive Charu Majumdar Jyoti Basu S. A. Dange Shibdas Ghosh T. Nagi Reddy

Tebhaga movement CCOMPOSA

Communism World Communist Movement

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Maoism

Basic concepts Marxism-Leninism · Anti-Revisionism · Three Worlds Theory · Social-imperialism · Mass line · People's war · Cultural Revolution · New Democracy · Agrarian socialism

Prominent Maoists Bob Avakian · Chen Boda · Abimael Guzmán · İbrahim Kaypakkaya · Lin Biao · Mao Zedong · Charu Majumdar · Pierre Mulele · Huey P. Newton · Prachanda · Jiang Qing · José María Sison · Yao Wenyuan · Zhang Chunqiao

International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations · Revolutionary Internationalist Movement

Parties by country Afghanistan · Bangladesh · Bhutan · Canada · Colombia · Ecuador · India · Iran · Italy · Nepal · Peru · Philippines · Portugal · Sri Lanka · Turkey · United States

Related topics Communist Party of China · Cultural Revolution · Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong · Naxalism

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It is claimed by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) that it is conducting 'people's war', a strategical line developed by Mao Zedong during the phase of guerrilla warfare of the Communist Party of China. Currently it has presence in remote regions of Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh as well as presence in Bihar and the tribal-dominated areas in the borderlands of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Orissa. The CPI (Maoist) aims to consolidate its power in this area and establish a Compact Revolutionary Zone from which to advance the people's war in other parts of India. The eventual objective is to install a "people’s government" via a "New Democracy Revolution".

Governance Tactics

The organisation has been holding 'Public Court' which at best can be described as kangaroo court in remote villages by handing out arbitrary and many times inhuman justice for local problems.^[3] They have also held these kangaroo courts in order to eliminate the local political leaders.^[4] These kangaroo courts are usually held in the areas where the police and administration does not have a permanent presence or does not venture into without additional specialized combat forces.

Funding

The principal funding for the Maoists comes from abductions, extortions and looting. The military hardware used by Maoists, as proved through a number of seizures, include RDX cable wires, gelatine sticks, detonators, country-made weapons, INSAS rifles, AK-47s, SLR and improvised explosive devices. According to MHA reports, the CRPF seized over 6000 kg of explosives in Bihar and 893 kg in Jharkhand till October 2008. Security forces also recovered codex wire in Jharkhand for the first time, a highly potent explosive with a blast-range of up to 720 meters, which has so far been used only by modern national armies (The Telegraph, 16 October 2008).

Another major source of funding for Maoists comes from poppy cultivation reported from the Ghagra area of Gumla district in Jharkhand and in parts of Gumla, Kishanganj and Purnia districts in Bihar. Security forces claim that opium fields are screened and hidden behind peripheral maize cultivation. The Naxals are also believed to be patronizing hemp cultivation to fund their activities as reported from Debagarh district in Orissa.^[5]

Military Tactics

It retains the tactics of its predecessor Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War of rejecting parliamentary democracy and capturing political power through protracted armed struggle based on guerrilla warfare. This strategy entails building up of bases in rural and remote areas and transforming them first into guerrilla zones and then as "liberated zones", besides the area-wise seizure and encircling cities. They have also been communicating with the Lashkar-e-Taiba in an attempt to coordinate the actions of both organisations in Jharkhand state according to an alleged LET operative Mohd Omar Madni arrested on June 4, 2009.^[6]

Using cannibalism to strike terror among tribals

Maoist terrorists are using cannibalism to strike terror in the hearts of the native tribal population of India.

On August 14,2007 a day before the Indian Independence day, a Maoist killed a man and ate his flesh in full view of the public in Malkangiri district of Orissa.

The victim name is Mukunda Madhi, a tribal villager from the Orissa state in India.

According to eye-witness accounts the perpetrator of this heinous crime if said to be Bhagat, commander of the Paplur Dalam of the Maoist.^[7]

Organization

The military wings of the respective organisations, People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (military wing of MCCI) and People's Guerrilla Army (military wing of PW), were also merged. The name of the unified military organisation is People's Liberation Guerrilla Army. P.V. Ramana, of the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi estimates the Naxilities' current strength at 9,000 -10,000 armed fighters, with access to about 6,500 firearms.^[8] Other estimates by Indian intelligence officials and Maoist leaders suggest that the rebel ranks in India have swelled to 20,000, though the number is impossible to verify.^[9]

Status

Organizations listed as terrorist groups by India
Northeastern India
National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) Naga National Council-Federal (NNCF) National Council of Nagaland-Khaplang United Liberation Front of Asom People's Liberation Army Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) Zomi Revolutionary Front
Kashmir
Al-Badr Al-Badr Mujahideen Al Barq (ABQ) Al Fateh Force (AFF) Al Jihad Force (AJF)/Al Jihad Al Mujahid Force (AMF) Al Umar Mujahideen (AUR/Al Umar) Awami Action Committee (AAC) Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DEM) Harakat-ul-Ansar Harakat-ul-Jihad-I-Islami Harakat-ul-Mujahideen Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) Ikhwan-ul-Musalmeen (IUM) Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) Lashkar-e-Mohammadi Jammat-ul-Mujahideen (JUM) Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Almi (JUMA) Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) Jammu and Kashmir Jamaat-e-Islami (JKJEI) Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) Jaish-e-Mohammed Kul Jammat Hurriyat Conference (KJHC) Mahaz-e-Azadi (MEA) Muslim Janbaaz Force (MJF/Jaanbaz Force) Muslim Mujahideen (MM) Hizbul Mujahideen Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Farzandan-e-Milat United Jihad Council Al-Qaeda Students Islamic Movement of India Tehreek-e-Jihad (TEJ) Pasban-e-Islami (PEI/Hizbul Momineen HMM) Shora-e-Jihad (SEJ) Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TUM)
North India
Babbar Khalsa Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan Communist Party of India (Maoist) Dashmesh Regiment International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) Kamagata Maru Dal of Khalistan Khalistan Armed Force Khalistan Liberation Force Khalistan Commando Force Khalistan Liberation Army Khalistan Liberation Front Khalistan Liberation Organisation Khalistan National Army Khalistan Guerilla Force Khalistan Security Force Khalistan Zindabad Force Shaheed Khalsa Force
Central India
People's war group Balbir militias Naxals Ranvir Sena
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The party was banned on 22 June 2009 by the central home ministry keeping in mind the growing unlawful activities by the group^[10] The party is regarded by some as a "left-wing extremist entity" and a terrorist outfit and several of their members have been arrested by the Indian Government under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA)^[11][12]. The group is officially banned by the State Governments of Orissa^[13], Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, among others. The party has protested these bans.^[14] They are regarded as a serious security threat and the Indian government is taking countermeasures, pulling the affected states together to coordinate their response. It says it will combine improved policing with socio-economic measures to defuse grievances that fuel the Maoist cause.^[15] In many states, private armies and vigilante groups, often government-sponsored, have sprung up to counter the Maoists. It is alleged that these private armies have also forcibly recruited villagers against the Maoists.^[15] Special insurance provisions have been made by the Indian government for paramilitary forces stationed in regions affected by the militant Maoists.^[16]

Recent Violent activities

• October 8, 2009 : About 150 Maoist ambushed a Police petrol and killed 17 Policemen in Gadchiroli,Maharashtra^[17]

• October 6, 2009 : Police inspector Francis Induwar was beheaded by Maoists in Jharkhand.^[18]. The action has been compared to the tactics of the Islamist Taliban of Pakistan-Afghanistan[9][10]

• April 13, 2009: 10 paramilitary troops are killed in eastern Orissa.^[19]

• February 23, 2009: Maoists kill a contractor, sets fire in police post at Govindpalli of Malkangiri.^[20][21]

• July 16, 2008: A landmine hit a police van in Malkangiri district, killing 21 policemen.^[22]

• June 29, 2008: CPI forces attacked a boat on the Chitrakonda reservoir in Orissa carrying members of an anti-Naxalite police force. The boat sunk, killing 33 policemen, while 28 survived.^[23][24]

• In November 2007 reports emerged that the anti-SEZ movement in Nandigram in West Bengal had been infiltrated by Naxalites since February; the reports quoted unnamed intelligence sources.^[25] Recently, police found weapons belonging to Maoists near Nandigram.

• In 2008, The Hindu newspaper reported that a Maoist killed a man and ate his flesh in full view of the public in Malkangiri district of Orissa in order to terrorize the villagers. The alleged incident occurred in Bandiguda on August 14, 2007.^[26]

• On March 15, 2007 an attack happened in the rebel stronghold area of Dantewada, in Chhattisgarh state. Fifty-four persons, including 15 personnel of the Chhattishgarh Armed Force, were killed in an offensive by 300 to 350 CPI (Maoist) cadres on a police base camp in the Bastar region in the early hours of Thursday. The remaining victims were tribal youths of Salwa Judum, designated as Special Police Officers (SPOs) and roped in to combat the Maoists. Eleven person were injured. The attack, which lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, was spearheaded by the "State Military Commission (Maoist)", consisting of about 100 armed naxalites.^[27]

• On March 6, 2007 the CPI (Maoist) reportedly claimed responsibility for the Mahato assassination, but JMM members of the Jharkhand state cabinet, including the Chief Minister, subsequently announced that a state police investigation is under way into the authenticity of this claim. Police reportedly believe that political rivals of Mahato, including organized criminal groups, may have been behind the assassination.^[28]

• On March 5, 2007 Maoist shot dead a local Congress leader (Prakash, a member of the local Mandal Praja Parishad (MPP)) in Andhra Pradesh while he was inspecting a road construction project in Mahabubnagar district.^[29]

• On March 4, 2007 Maoist shot dead a member of the parliament (Sunil Mahato) of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) party from Jharkhand state.^[30]

• On December 2, 2006 the BBC reported that at least 14 Indian policemen had been killed by Maoists in a landmine ambush near the town of Bokaro, 80 miles from Ranchi, the capital of the State of Jharkhand.^[31]

• On October 18, 2006 women belonging to the Maoist guerrilla forces blasted four government buildings in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. On the day before, over a dozen armed cadres of the group, with support from male colleagues, blocked traffic on the Antagarh-Koylibera Road in the Kanker district, near the city of Raipur. They also detonated explosives inside four buildings, including two schools, in Kanker[11]. This incident occurred two days after a major leader of the party's operations in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, Kone Kedandam, surrendered to authorities in the town of Srikakulam.^[32]

• On July 16, 2006 the Maoists attacked a relief camp in the Dantewada district where several villagers were kidnapped. The death toll was 29.^[33]

• On February 28, 2006 the Maoists attacked several anti-Maoist protesters in Erraboru village in Chhattisgarh using landmines, killing 25 people.^[34]

• On 13 November 2005 CPI (Maoist) fighters stunned authorities by attacking Jehanabad in Bihar, freeing 250 captured comrades and taking twenty imprisoned right wing paramilitaries captive, executing their leader. They also detonated several bombs in the town.^[35] A prison guard was also reported killed.

• In August 2005 Maoists kidnapped from the Dantewada district of the state of Chhattisgarh.This fiollows violent incidents in 2004 in the same region when 50 policemen and about 300 villagers were killed in the Dantewada district and over 50,000 villagers were staying in relief camps out of fear from Maoists.^[36]

• In February 2005 the CPI (Maoist) killed 7 policemen, a civilian and injured many more during a mass attack on a school building in Venkatammanahalli village, Pavgada, Tumkur, Karnataka.^[37][38] On August 17, 2005, the government of Andhra Pradesh outlawed the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and various mass organizations close to it, and began to arrest suspected members and sympathizers days afterwards. The arrested included former emissaries at the peace talks of 2004.

• A Frontline Cover Story calls the Bhamragad Taluka where the Madia Gond Adivasis live, the heart of the naxalite-affected region in Maharashtra.^[39]

Opposition to the Maoist

In 2005, State sponsored an anti-Maoist movement and called it the Salwa Judum. The group has forced thousands of people out of their forest hamlets and into designated camps. The camps are guarded by police officers, paramilitary forces and squads of local armed youths empowered with the title "special police officer."

International connections

The CPI (Maoist) maintains dialogue with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) who control most of Nepal in the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) according to several intelligence sources and think tanks.^[40] These links are however denied by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)^[41]

Front Organisations

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

The PWG also has a string of front organisations which they claim consists of students, youth, industrial workers, miners, peasants, women, poets, writers and cultural artists but in reality consists mostly of Maoist members. Some among these are listed below:

Andhra Pradesh

Rythu Coolie Sangham (Agricultural labourers association)

Singareni Karmika Samakhya (Singareni collieries workers federation)

Viplava Karmika Samakhya (Revolutionary workers federation)

Radical Students Union

Radical Youth League

All India Revolutionary Students Federation

Bihar

Lok Sangram Morcha (People’s Struggle Front)

Mazddor Kisam Mukti Morcha (Workers-Peasants Liberation Front)

Jan Mukti Parishad (People’s Liberation Council)

Mazdoor Kisan Ekta Morcha (Workers-Peasants Unity Front)

Bharat Navjawan Sabha (Indian Youth Association)

Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Parishad (Workers-Peasants Struggle Council)

Shramik Sangram Manch (Workers Struggle Platform)

Nari Mukti Sangharsh Samiti (Women’s Liberation Struggle Association)

Sangharsha Jana Mukti Morcha (People’s Liberation Struggle Front)

Democratic Students Union

All India People’s Resistance Forum

Madhya Pradesh

Adivasi Kisan Mazdoor Sangh (Tribal Peasants-Workers Association)

Krantikari Kisan Mazdoor Sangh (Revolutionary Peasants-Workers Association)

Krantikari Balak Sangh (Revolutionary Children’s Association)

Gram Raksha Dal (Village Defence Force)

Gram Rajya Samiti (Village governance council)

References

External links

• Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India by Jim Yardley, The New York Times, October 31, 2009