[The first news item brings out the intrinsic incompatibility between the politics of insurgency and open mass works.]
I/II. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100305/jsp/bengal/story_12180424.jsp Deepak finger on trade union pulse A STAFF REPORTER *Calcutta, March 4: *Whether in the forests of Lalgarh or in urban Calcutta, Telugu Deepak, police believe, had cast the Maoist web wide across the state. The police claimed that besides training youths in guerrilla tactics in the Maoist-infested districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore, Deepak was involved in setting up ultra-Left trade unions in Calcutta as well as North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly. Sleuths questioning Deepak, a member of the CPI (Maoist) state committee, said he had frequented Calcutta and nearby areas in the past couple of years. His task was to set up unions, especially in the unorganised sector, but also where trade unions were existing. “He was arrested en route to Haripur, the site of the proposed nuclear reactor in East Midnapore. Deepak had for sometime been engaged in setting up Maoist-backed units among jute workers, tailors, barbers and other daily wage earners,” an officer said. “He also set up a union for Group D bank employees.” The police said that he used to do this with the help of frontal organisations of the Maoists to avoid prosecution. “For instance, he had set up the Mazdoor Kisan Shramik Sangathan in many of the jute mills along the Hooghly and also Naba Parjay, an outfit of state government employees sympathetic towards the Maoists,” the officer said. “This (the work for the unions) is what brought him often to Calcutta.” Deepak was also the architect behind the Maoist bases in Nadia, Murshidabad and Birbhum. “He organised the farmers and poor villagers who reside on the banks of the Jalangi in south Bengal and also helped organise a violent movement against ration dealers in Birbhum,” the officer added. “But last year, after a police crackdown and arrest of key operatives recruited by Deepak, the Maoist base in Murshidabad and Nadia suffered a setback.” The officer also said that Deepak was in touch with “some political” leaders as well as intellectuals but refused to elaborate. “Deepak is a big catch and we are relieved he has been arrested.” “The central intelligence bureau had submitted a report that the Maoists should be neutralised in Haripur to set up the nuclear reactor there. There was pressure on the state government to do so and Deepak’s arrest will go a long way in achieving that.” P. Nirajnayan, inspector-general, CID, said: “We have enough proof to show that he went there (Haripur) a number of times and appointed his point men there,” said. CPM murder Suspected Maoists shot dead a CPM leader in West Midnapore’s Binpur area. Police said Swapan Mondal, 35, a panchayat samiti member and a CPM local committee member, was returning home on a motorcycle when he was shot dead. *P C RAP* *New Delhi, March 4: *P. Chidambaram today said the CPM and the Janata Dal (United) had been ambivalent in the past to Maoist threat, the accusation apparently directed at the main parties in the Bengal and Bihar coalition governments. The Union home minister’s remarks came at a meeting he held with the administrative heads of 33 districts worst affected by the menace. Sources said a battalion (around 1,000 men) each of central forces would soon be sent to Bengal and Jharkhand. “The battalions should reach by March 10,” said a senior official. II. http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article148912.ece?homepage=true Published: March 5, 2010 Updated: March 5, 2010 02:28 IST Trinamool gave us arms, says arrested Maoist leaderRaktima Bose The arrested Maoist leader Venkatesh Reddy alias Deepak, has admitted that he was tasked with setting up a safe corridor between the forested areas of West Bengal’s southwestern districts (known as Jangalmahal) and Nandigram, police sources said on Thursday. Deepak, who was arrested here on Tuesday, is also reported to have said the Trinamool Congress had provided Maoists with arms and that they, in turn, gave supporters of the party arms training during the movement in Nandigram. It was the Maoists’ intention to gain a foothold in the Nandigram area with Trinamool help in the course of the agitation, led by the party in 2007 against alleged moves by the State government to acquire land for the setting up a chemical hub there. Deepak, who was grilled round the clock by officers of the Criminal Investigation Department and other higher police officials, is learnt to have been cooperating with the interrogators and speaking candidly about his activities. However, he declined to divulge details of the organisational set-up of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), its activities and city-based sympathisers, for fear of the police embarking on random arrests. According to the interrogators, Deepak said he “has ideological differences” with Maoist Polit Bureau member Kishanji over the method of continuing the movement, and blamed him for “hurrying up with things,” which resulted in successive blows to the outfit in the form of arrests and killings of squad members. Deepak has reportedly admitted that once Operation Green Hunt is fully operational in all States, the Maoists will not be able to combat the security forces for long. He said he was sent to West Bengal first in 1995 to do groundwork on the possibility of extending the Maoist movement. For, the State had already witnessed one such movement in the 1970s. Deepak said the party leaders had hoped to generate support in north Bengal as Naxalbari is located there. Backing, however, came from the southwestern parts, and he had been deputed to the Lalgarh region since 1999 to raise armed squads before being asked to look after the land movements in Singur and Nandigram in 2006. Deepak claimed that he had not visited his home and mother for the past 15 years, police sources said. A regular visitor to Kolkata since 1995, the sources said, he had come here this time to strengthen the organisational base of the party’s city unit. An audio cassette, found on his person at the time of arrest, reportedly contained a speech by a senior Maoist leader. [image: Top] <#top> -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
