Here are two pieces. One, a news analysis. Quite a serious one. Whether one agrees or disagrees with. The other one is an interview by Chhatradhar Mahato, the leader of the PCAPA under the banner of which the highly successful mass resistance was going on for the last seven months or so keeping the state administration out of its own territory even during the last Lok Sabha election and compelling it to set up voting booths just outside the lakshmanrekha to ensure that the villagers can cast their votes while still keeping the state out. That too amidst full-blooded campaign for vote boycott. The seven month long resistance crashed almost overnight with the Maoists coming overground, claiming the authorship of the resistance, proudly declaring that they tried to kill the Chief Minister and would do it again and going on a violent spree including killings. That gave the state the perfect alibi to shed its diffidence of long seven months and breach the resistance. If Nandigarm had immobilised the state, after its brutal actions turned severely counter-productive, Lalgarh, or its latest phase, has helped radically reverse the trend.
*The resistance, which had held for long seven months, collapsed almost overnight, within seven days of the Maoist misventure.* The article by Pothik Ghosh looks into that dynamic. Chhatradhar Mahato, in his interview, desperately and pathetically trying to distance the PCAPA from the Maoists: *It is being alleged that Maoists are supporting the PCAPA. Is it true?* * * *Not at all. These are concocted allegations by our detractors. The PCAPA came into being seven to eight months back, whereas the Maoists have been here since ages.* *Their agenda is completely different from ours. * *Also if you take a close look at the PCAPA's 'warriors', they carry traditional arms like axes, spears, bows and arrows etc, whereas Maoists use landmines and other sophisticated weapons -- there is hardly any similarity between the two. * **Sukla I/II. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=89969bbe-9b93-4dd7-ab0d-139d3af67e6f&Headline=CPI(M)+vs+CPI(M) *Pothik Ghosh<http://www.hindustantimes.com/Search/Search.aspx?q=Pothik%20Ghosh&nodate=1> * June 21, 2009 First Published: 21:07 IST(21/6/2009) Last Updated: 21:08 IST(21/6/2009) CPI(M) vs CPI(M) In politics, the truth is almost always counter-intuitive. In this realm — where the art of the possible intersects in unexpected ways with the science of the impossible — ominous portents of anarchy often conceal messianic promises of deliverance. Lalgarh, today, is perhaps the starkest symbol of this confounding cocktail, which has come to characterise the polity of Left Front-ruled West Bengal. What distinguishes the Lalgarh uprising from other violent incidents that have scarred Bengal in recent years is that the cynical calculus of competitive electoral politics has had absolutely no bearing on the movement. The insurgency of the Lalgarh population has been shaped by its experience of a state that has registered its presence in the area through the brutal effectiveness of its repressive apparatuses but has been absent as a purveyor of emancipatory social development. That is precisely why Lalgarh should not be classified as a tribal identity movement. The majority population of Lalgarh is tribal, but the anti-competitive orientation of their struggle, thanks to the objective politico-economic conditions that have shaped them, serves to invert the logic of identitarian movements, which always articulate their politics in supremacist terms of ethno-cultural domination. The People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA)-led revolt, which was sparked seven months ago by a repressive combing operation launched by the state police in Lalgarh and surrounding areas in response to a Maoist mine attack on the chief minister’s cavalcade, has steadily become a two-pronged movement of resistance and social reconstruction through participatory management of rudimentary public services such as healthcare developed by the local community. The Bengal government was extremely cagey until a few weeks ago to launch a crackdown. That was largely due to the movement’s mass insurrectionary character. In Lalgarh, violence has been a collective expression of disaffection against the oppressive socio-economic order the state defends. Even the guerrilla operations carried out by Maoists in the area have become a seamless extension of this insurrection, which enjoys wide-ranging legitimacy. It is this legitimacy, which derives from an assertion of popular sovereignty, that had compelled the West Bengal regime to keep its Stalinist proclivities — seen in Nandigram — in check for so long. A modern State formation also acts in the name of popular sovereignty. But in an insurrectionary situation, as in Lalgarh, the government comes to be seen as an external threat to the sovereignty of the people. That renders the legal-illegal dichotomy problematic and makes it difficult for the state to monopolise violence to crush popular movements in the name of curbing anti-sovereign insurgency. The CPI(M)-led Left Front could ill-afford such a risk after the electoral drubbing. Alas, Lalgarh has squandered that advantage, thanks to a tactical blunder by the Maoists. The recent claims by various Maoist leaders that the PCAPA was a front of their underground party has given the repressive arms of both the Bengal government and, to a lesser extent, the Centre, the alibi they had been waiting for. They know the police operation in Lalgarh will now be widely perceived as a legitimate measure to protect popular sovereignty from Maoist depredations. The Maoists, thanks to their doctrinaire commitment to agrarian revolution and the tactical emphasis on guerrilla struggles exclusively in rural areas of the country, have failed to mobilise the working class in the urban areas. Their time-worn approach of encirclement of cities by a people’s army raised from the countryside has militarised their politics; their roving guerrilla squads carry out dramatic raids on behalf of a rural population they have barely organised. It has thus been easy for the Indian ruling classes to delegitimise it as an ‘outside’ threat to ‘internal security’. The Maoists may have a significant numerical and ideological presence within the Lalgarh movement. But the PCAPA, diverse in its composition, is not a Maoist front. The situation was an opportunity for the Maoists to quietly provide the PCAPA logistical support and ideological orientation to expand the movement politically through the aggregation of other disenfranchised sections of Bengal’s society into one movement, which would articulate a polyphonous critique of a larger political-economic logic constitutive of their various miseries. That would, among other things, transform Maoism into an ideological current, which is always internal to an ever-expanding constellation of popular movements. Under such conditions, the character of political violence, even when guerrilla tactics are deployed, would always be insurrectionary. The State would then be hard put to delegitimise such violence, or the movements that generate them, as anti-sovereign. It would also reclaim Maoism from its current sectarian militarism that has, often enough, ended up replicating the same repressive forms of state power. Clearly, the Maoists’ conception of the party as an a priori state-form, which seeks to subordinate various registers of struggle to its doctrinaire conception of politics, is their Achilles’ heel. This predisposes their organisation to the same kind of social-democratic and Stalinist degeneration that has afflicted the CPI(M)-led Left Front’s strain of working-class politics in Bengal. In social democracy, there is no place for transformative politics because it treats the State, which actually is constitutive of an exploitative system, as a neutral instrument that merely needs to be controlled to enforce equity. The absurd Stalinist split the CPI(M) has managed to create between development and democracy is a symptom of this social-democratic malaise. The Maoists, who too call their party the CPI(M) — Communist Party of India (Maoist) — should make sure their uncanny resemblance with the original CPI(M) stop right there. And that can probably begin with their redefinition of the organisation as a movement-form, where Maoism is envisioned as a dynamic organisational impulse and the party is always in a state of formation through a process of perpetual politicisation at the grassroots. *Pothik Ghosh is a Delhi-based writer on politics and culture* *[He is an editor of the radical Left website <radicalnotes.com> and actively engaged with Left politics.]* II. http://news.rediff.com/interview/2009/jun/22/interview-with-convenor-of-peoples-committee-against-police-atrocities.htm#write 'If I'm arrested, Lalgarh will be torn by violence' **June 22, 2009 | 12:57 IST The Lalgarh crisis is far from�over. Though security forces on Saturday moved into Lalgarh and took control of the police station, violence orchestrated by the Communist Party of India-Maoist and the tribal organisation People's Committee Against Police Atrocities still rocks the area. An arrest warrant was issued against *Chhatradhar Mahato*, convenor of the PCAPA, on Saturday. Yet, the tribal leader is unfazed and vows to put up a strong resistance against the central and state forces. Mahato spoke to *rediff.com*'s *Indrani Roy Mitra *on late Friday night and also on Saturday. �� *There is an arrest warrant against you. Would you like to comment on it? *It is but expected of the government forces. Sixty-two years have passed since India's Independence but neither the central government nor the state government did anything for the welfare of the tribals of Bengal's Jangalmahal. Under the CPI-M's tenure, a group of leaders became millionaires by exploiting the tribals of the area. Therefore, while sons of the soil died of starvation, the CPI-M leaders built palaces. Now when the tribal leaders are protesting, the central forces are either unleashing violence or planning to arrest their leaders. Great moves indeed! However, should they arrest me, Lalgarh will be torn apart by violence, hitherto unseen and unheard of. *You are always on the move -- either to evade arrest or to fight the central and state forces. Aren't you scared?* I have dedicated my life to the welfare of the people of Jangalmahal. I have to convey their messages to the people across India and the world. Whatever be the consequences of my action, I am ready to face it. � *It is being alleged that Maoists are supporting the PCAPA. Is it true? *Not at all. These are concocted allegations by our detractors. The PCAPA came into being seven to eight months back, whereas the Maoists have been here since ages. Their agenda is completely different from ours. Also if you take a close look at the PCAPA's 'warriors', they carry traditional arms like axes, spears, bows and arrows etc, whereas Maoists use landmines and other sophisticated weapons -- there is hardly any similarity between the two. � *Are you suggesting that you put up such a strong fight against government forces with traditional arms only?* Of course. I am not merely suggesting it, I am categorically stating once again that we have no connection with the Maoists. *It is also being alleged by the CPI-M that the Trinamool Congress is supporting you.* This is utter nonsense. At the PCAPA's inception, it was decided that the committee will be free from the influence of any political party. Besides, the committee members had seen in the past how the Trinamool Congress's attempts to better the lives of the tribals went in vain. Therefore, the PCAPA decided to fight their own battle. *You once belonged to the Trinamool Congress. What went wrong? TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said at a press conference on Saturday that you were expelled after her party discovered your links with the Maoists. *First, let me clear the air -- I was never expelled from the Trinamool Congress. I quit the party when I found it 'incapable' of meeting the tribals' needs. When the police fired at a PCAPA rally on February 2 this year, killing three PCAPA members, Mamata Banerjee visited Jangalmahal, shed tears and said, 'If these people are Maoists, then I too am a Maoist.' We never doubted her 'sincerity' then. However, after the elections, the same Mamata Banerjee got a Cabinet post, joined the government at the Centre, which in turn sent paramilitary forces to Lalgarh. Therefore, it is quite natural for Banerjee now to link me with the Maoists. *A Press Trust of India report quoted you as saying that the PCAPA could build infrastructure in just eight months in restive Lalgarh.* Journalists always misquote and make wrong deductions. All I had meant was what the Left Front government could not do in�32 long years of its tenure, can be done by the PCAPA in a few months only. The people at Lalgarh die of starvation regularly, there is no health infrastructure, our children don't get proper education, the tribal languages are neglected and no steps are taken for the welfare of the Jangalmahal residents. If the PCAPA is given power, it can really do wonders -- that is exactly what I had said. *Now the Centre and state government are unitedly fighting against the PCAPA and Maoists. Are you equipped enough to counter the joint forces? * No power on earth can fight against a State. Hence I cannot say we are capable of winning against the military and paramilitary forces. However, we are brave soldiers. We won't give in without putting up a strong resistance. *If you are certain of losing the battle, may I ask what did you gain from these violent protests?* We wanted our voices to be heard by the world. We wanted the privileged to know how the people of Jangalmahal lead their lives. The PCAPA had wanted to create a public opinion. We think we have succeeded in doing so. *Are you ready for talks with the state government if you get a chance?* Of course. We have attempted to arrive at an amicable solution on several occasions in the past. Even now, we are not averse to discussions. However, I don't expect the governments to have any intent of holding talks. They want their guns to do the talking. *You no longer belong to the Trinamool Congress and if the central and state forces manage to wipe out the PCAPA, you will lose your political identity altogether. What are your plans?* I never had any political ambition. I have always wanted to better the lives of my folks. Till my last breath, I will try to achieve my goal. Success or failure doesn't matter. What matters to me is the work at hand. *Hypothetically speaking, if you manage to drive away the central and state forces and win, what do you plan to do for the people of Lalgarh?* We want to encourage the tribals to move ahead in life. We would ensure that they get four square meals a day, enjoy their fundamental rights and that their children get proper education. We would also ensure that no political party ever gets a chance to exploit the simple tribal folks of this area. We would never again let the CPI-M leaders to build mansions here by extorting from the tribals. �� *Photo: Dipak Chakraborty* *Also see: Video interview with Chhatradhar Mahato<http://ishare.rediff.com/video/news-and-politics/chhtradhar-mahato-speaks-on-lalgarh-crisis/636111> * --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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