Mahendra Karma's Annihilation - CPI Maoist statement

Elimination of fascist Salwa Judum leader Mahendra Karma: Legitimate response to the inhuman atrocities, brutal murders and endless terror perpetrated on the Adivasis of Bastar!

Attack on top Congress leaders: Inevitable reprisal to the fascist Operation Green Hunt being carried on by the UPA government hand in glove with various state governments!

On May 25, 2013, a detachment of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army conducted a massive attack on the 20 plus vehicles convoy of Congress party which resulted in wiping out of at least 27 Congress leaders, activists and policemen including Mahendra Karma, the bitter enemy of the oppressed people of Bastar and Nand Kumar Patel, president of the Congress’ state unit. It took place when the Congress party leaders were touring in Bastar region as part of their ‘Parivartan Yatra’ program (i.e. March of Change) keeping their eye on forthcoming assembly elections. At least 30 others also were injured in this attack including ex-central minister and veteran Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla. The dog’s death of Mahendra Karma, notorious tyrant, murderer, rapist, robber and maligned as corrupt, in this historic attack has created a festive atmosphere in entire Bastar region. Former state home minister Nand Kumar Patel was also had the history of suppressing the people. It was in his tenure, paramilitary force (CRPF) was deployed in Bastar region for the first time. It was also not hidden from anyone that the former central minister VC Shukla who had been in various portfolios including Home ministry, was also a people’s enemy who had acted as a loyal servant of imperialists, comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and landlords and had played a key role in formulating and implementing exploitative government policies. 

The goal of this attack was mainly to eliminate Mahendra Karma and some other reactionary Congress top leaders as well. However, during this massive attack some innocent people and some lower level Congress party activists who were in fact not our enemies, were also killed and injured caught in the two-hour long gun battle that ensued between our guerrilla forces and the armed police forces. Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of Communist Party of India (Maoist) regrets for this and expresses condolence and sympathy to the families of the bereaved.

Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of Communist Party of India (Maoist) takes absolute responsibility for this attack. We send our revolutionary greetings to the PLGA commanders who led this daring ambush, to the red fighters who contributed in this success, to the people who took part in it by lending active support and to the entire revolutionary masses of Bastar region. This attack has once again proved the historic fact that those fascists who perpetrate violence, atrocities and massacres on the people, will never be forgiven and they would inevitably be punished by the people.

The so-called tribal leader Mahendra Karma was born into a feudal manjhi family. Both his grandfather Masa Karma and father Bodda Manjhi were notorious harassers of the people in their times and were acted as trusted agents of colonial rulers. His family’s entire history is known of inhuman exploitation and oppression of Adivasis. Mahendra Karma’s political life was started in 1975 as a member of AISF while he was studying the law. He was elected as MLA from CPI first in 1978. Later in 1981, when he was denied ticket by CPI, he joined Congress. In 1996, he had gone with a breakaway faction of Madhavrao Scindhia and became member of Indian Parliament as an independent candidate. Later he rejoined the Congress party.

In 1996, a massive movement took place in Bastar demanding the implementation of Sixth Schedule. Though mainly CPI had led that movement, our party – it was CPI (ML) [People’s War] then – also took active part in that movement mobilizing the masses on a large scale. But Mahendra Karma took bitter stand against that movement proving himself as representative of the selfish urban business people, who had come to Bastar as settlers and had accumulated massive wealth. Then only his anti-adivasi and pro-comprador nature was clearly exposed before the people. Since the 1980s, he had strengthened the bonds with big business and capitalist classes in Bastar.

Then in 1999, Karma’s name was exposed in a big scam called ‘Malik Makbuja’. A Lokayukta report revealed that in the period of 1992-96, Mahendra Karma hand in glove with timber black-marketers had made millions of rupees by cheating adivasi people and colluding with revenue and forest officials and the district collector. Though a CBI probe was ordered into this scam, nothing harm was done to the culprits as always happen.

Mahendra Karma was minister of jails in undivided Madhya Pradesh. Later became industries and commerce minister in Ajit Jogi’s government when Chhattisgarh state was carved out of it.  At that time a forceful land acquisition took place in Nagarnar for the proposed steel plant by Romelt/NMDC. While the local people refused to give up their lands, Mahendra Karma took stand against the people and in favor of the capitalists. He played a key role in forcibly taking away the lands by suppressing the people with support of brutal police force. The people who lost their lands in Nagarnar received neither compensation nor the employment as government had promised till now. They were forced to disperse.

From the very beginning, Mahendra Karma stood as an arch enemy of the revolutionary movement. The reason is clear – hailed from a typical feudal family and ‘grown up’ as an agent of big business and bourgeois classes. The first Jan Jagaran (‘awareness’) campaign was launched in 1990-91 against the revolutionary movement. The revisionist CPI had participated in that counter-revolutionary campaign. Karma and many of his relatives belonged to the landlord classes had actively participated in it. The second Jan Jagaran campaign was launched in 1997-98 led by Mahendra Karma himself. This was started in Mahendra Karma’s own village Faraspal and its surrounding villages and spread up to Bhairamgarh and Kutru areas. Hundreds of people were tortured and arrested and sent to jails. Many an incidents of looting and setting fire to houses took place. Womenfolk were raped. However, under the leadership of our party and mass organizations people came together and strongly countered this counter-revolutionary onslaught. Within a short time, this campaign was defeated.

Later the revolutionary movement became more consolidated. Anti-feudal struggles were intensified in many areas. Landlords like Podia Patel, the brother of Mahendra Karma, and some close relatives of him were killed as part of mass resistance actions. In many villages the power of feudal forces and bad gentry was thrown out and the process of establishment of People’s Revolutionary Power organs began. The feudal forces including Mahendra Karma were very furious as their lands were redistributed among the poor and landless peasants and the customs like unjustly forcing the people to pay penalties to the landlords were stopped. They opposed the progressive changes like stopping of forced marriages of women, discouraging polygamy etc. also. And at the same time, the revolutionary movement was seemed as a hurdle by the corporate houses like Tatas and Essars who started their attempts to plunder away the natural resources of Bastar region. So, they naturally colluded with the counter-revolutionary elements like Mahendra Karma. They fed him with millions of coffers in order to create conducive atmosphere for their arbitrary depredations. On the other hand, after the emergence of CPI (Maoist) as a country-wide consolidated party as an outcome of the merger between the genuine revolutionary organizations, exploitative ruling classes intensified their counter-revolutionary onslaught in the guidance of the imperialists so as to crush the revolutionary movement. Thus, a brutal attack in connivance with the Congress and the BJP has started in Bastar region namely ‘Salwa Judum’. So many followers and relatives of Mahendra Karma like Soyam Muka, Rambhuvan Kushwaha, Ajay Singh, Vikram Mandavi, Gannu Patel, Madhukarrao, and Gota Chinna etc. emerged as key leaders of Salwa Judum.

One can hardly find any examples in the history to compare the severity of the devastation and barbarity caused by Salwa Judum to the lives of the Bastar people. It killed more than one thousand people in cold blood; torched 640 villages into ashes, robbed thousands of houses; ate or took away chickens, goats, pigs, etc.; forced more than two million people to be displaced; dragged more than 50 thousand people into state-run ‘relief’ camps. Thus the Salwa Judum became anathema to the people. Hundreds of women were gang raped. Many women were murdered after rape. Massacres took place in many places. The atrocities perpetrated on the people and havoc created by the hooligans of Salwa Judum, the police and paramilitary forces, especially the Naga and Mizo battalions crossed all limits. There were several incidents in which people were brutally cut into pieces before being dumped in rivers. Cherli, Kotrapal, Mankeli, Karremarka, Mosla, Munder, Padeda, Paralnar, Pumbad, Gaganpalli... in many villages people were killed en masse. Hundreds of tribal youth were recruited as SPOs and were turned into hardened criminals. Mahendra Karma himself led the attacks on several villages in the name of conducting meetings and marches. Many women were raped by the goons with the direct instigation of Mahendra Karma. He was directly involved in many incidents of burning the villages, torturing and murdering the people. Thus, in the minds of the people of Bastar, Mahendra Karma remained as an inhuman killer, rapist, dacoit and a loyal broker of the big capitalists. In entire Bastar people have been demanding our party and the PLGA for many years that he must be punished. Many of them came forward voluntarily to give active support in this task. There were also a few attempts, but due to petty mistakes and other reasons he was able to escape.

With this action we have taken revenge of over a thousand adivasis who were brutally murdered in the hands of Salwa Judum goons and government armed forces. We also have taken revenge on behalf of those hundreds of mothers and sisters who were subjected to cruelest forms of violence, humiliation and sexual assault. We have taken revenge on behalf of the thousands of Bastarites who lost their homes, cattle, chickens, goats, bald, pottery, clothing, grain, crops ... everything and were forced to live a miserable life in subhuman conditions.

Immediately after this attack, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh etc. dubbed this as an attack on democracy and democratic values. One wonders whether these pet dogs of exploiter classes have any moral qualification even to take the name of democracy! Of late, on May 17, when eight people including three innocent children were killed by police and paramilitary forces in Edsametta village of Bijapur district, then why did none of these leaders bother to think about ‘democracy’? Between January 20 to 23, when villages named Doddi Tumnar and Pidiya of Bijapur district were attacked by your forces who torched 20 houses and a school house run by the people, did your ‘democracy’ flourish there? Exactly 11 months ago, on the night of June 28, 2012 in Sarkinguda village, 17 adivasis were slaughtered and 13 women were gang raped.  Were those incidents a part of your ‘democratic values’? Does your ‘democracy’ only applicable to the mass murderers like Mahendra Karma and ruling class agents like Nand Kumar Patel? Whether the poor adivasis of Bastar, the elderly, children and the women come under the umbrella of your ‘democracy’ or not? Are the massacres of adivasis a part of your ‘democracy’? Do any of those who are shouting loudly against this attack have any answer for these questions?

By the end of 2007, Salwa Judum was defeated by the resistance of the masses. Then in 2009, Congress-led UPA-2 has unleashed a countrywide offensive by name Operation Green Hunt (OGH). The US imperialists are not only giving guidance and help and support, but by deploying their special forces in India they also are actively participating in counter-insurgency operations. They are giving emphasis on killing the Maoist leadership. The Union government has so far sent more than 50 thousand paramilitary forces to Chhattisgarh as part of ongoing OGH, i.e. ‘War on People’. As a result, there has been manifold increase in massacres and destruction. 400 adivasis were killed by central and state armed forces here in Bastar so far since 2009. From mid-2011, Army troops have been creating bases in Bastar region in the name of setting up ‘training schools’. Both Chidambaram and Shinde, the former and present home ministers, including PM Manmohan Singh have been eagerly rendering all support to the Chhattisgarh government and expressing full satisfaction over Raman Singh government’s performance in crushing revolutionary movement. Raman Singh too has been expressing his gratitude on every occasion for Centre’s help. Therefore, in Chhattisgarh, there are no differences between ruling BJP and opposition Congress in terms of policies of suppressing the revolutionary movement. Only due to public pressure, as well as to gain electoral benefits, some of the local leaders of the Congress at times came in condemnation of incidents like Sarkinguda and Edsametta massacres. Their opposition is sham which is nothing more than opportunism. Both Congress and BJP are same in implementing corporate friendly and oppressive policies. The frequent penetration of Greyhounds forces across the Chhattisgarh borders from Andhra Pradesh, and the mass murders it committed first in Kanchal (2008) and recently in Puwwarti (May 16, 2013) are part and parcel of the oppressive policies adopted and implemented by Congress party. That's why we have targeted top leaders of Congress.

Today, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar, Ministers Ramvichar Netam, Kedar Kashyap, Vikram Usendi, Governor Shekhar Dutt, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil etc.; DGP Ram Niwas, ADG Mukesh Gupta and other senior officials of the police, who are hell-bent on crushing the revolutionary movement of Dandakaranya, are in the big illusion that they are unbeatable. Mahendra Karma also has kept the illusion that Z plus Security and bullet-proof vehicles would save him forever. In the history of the world, Hitler and Mussolini were in the same pride that no one could beat them. In the contemporary history of our country, the fascists like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi also were victims of similar misgivings. But the People are invincible. People only are the makers of the history. Ultimately, a handful of exploiters and a few of their pet dogs will only be thrown in the dustbin of the history.

Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of Communist Party of India (Maoist) calls upon the workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, writers, artists, media persons and all other democrats to demand the governments to stop the OGH immediately; to withdraw all kinds of paramilitary forces from Dandakaranya; to give up the conspiracy of deploying the Army in the name of ‘training’; to put an end to the interference of Air Force; to release all the revolutionary activists and ordinary adivasis languishing in various jails immediately; to scrap the cruel laws like UAPA, CSPSA, MACOCA, AFSPA, etc.; to cancel the all those MoUs signed with the corporate houses with the aim of plundering the natural wealth of the country.

(Gudsa Usendi) 

Spokesperson Dandakaranya 

Special Zonal Committee CPI (Maoist)

(This is translated and slightly abridged version of Hindi original)

Source : Banned Thought

Jairam Ramesh on Naxalite-Maoist Movement of India

SARDAR PATEL MEMORIAL LECTURE

From Tirupati To Pashupati

Some reflections on the Maoist issue: the title of the lecture comes from the popular image in the media that a “liberated” Red corridor is sought to be created extending from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal and cutting across the very heart of India...

JAIRAM RAMESH

Text of the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture (organised by Prasar Bharati) by the minister for rural development
I am not just privileged but also truly humbled to be part of this prestigious lecture series launched a half century and six years ago by none other than C. Rajagopalachari. Many distinguished personalities have preceded me and this makes me feel all the more honoured to be here this evening.

To say anything about such an indomitable colossus as Sardar Patel, one of our Founding Fathers, would be gratuitous. Often referred to as the “Iron Man” and as the “Bismarck of India”, he was part of the triumvirate which dominated the Indian National Congress and indeed the Indian political landscape for almost three decades. Using this imagery of the trinity, one of his well-known biographers B. Krishna wrote :"Gandhi represented Brahma-the creator and inspirer. Nehru reflected Vishnu’s soft, gentle looks, a nobility of character and humanism that transcended barriers of caste and creed. And Patel proved, like Siva, the destroyer and unifier-the builder and consolidator of Modern India ". And in keeping with the modern-day Brahma’s predilections, the destruction was peaceful. During his visit to India in 1955, Nikita Khrushchev is reported to have expressed his amazement at the Sardar’s accomplishments by remarking “You Indians are an amazing people. How on earth did you manage to liquidate princely rule without liquidating the princes?”

Is the nation in a coma?

A well written article from the Hindu Businessline on the World's largest undeclared Banana Republic.

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Is the nation in a coma? 


Europeans believe that Indian leaders are too blinded by new wealth and deceit to comprehend that the day will come when the have-nots will hit the streets.

Mohan Murti

A few days ago I was in a panel discussion on mergers and acquisitions in Frankfurt, Germany, organised by Euroforum and The Handelsblatt, one of the most prestigious newspapers in German-speaking Europe.

The other panellists were senior officials of two of the largest carmakers and two top insurance companies — all German multinationals operating in India.

The panel discussion was moderated by a professor from the esteemed European Business School. The hall had an audience that exceeded a hundred well-known European CEOs. I was the only Indian.

After the panel discussion, the floor was open for questions. That was when my “moment of truth” turned into an hour of shame, embarrassment — when the participants fired questions and made remarks on their experiences with the evil of corruption in India.

The awkwardness and humiliation I went through reminded of The Moment of Truth, the popular Anglo-American game. The more questions I answered truthfully, the more the questions get tougher. Tougher here means more embarrassing.

European disquiet

Questions ranged from “Is your nation in a coma?”, the corruption in judiciary, the possible impeachment of a judge, the 2G scam and to the money parked illegally in tax havens.

It is a fact that the problem of corruption in India has assumed enormous and embarrassing proportions in recent years, although it has been with us for decades. The questions and the debate that followed in the panel discussion was indicative of the European disquiet. At the end of the Q&A session, I surmised Europeans perceive India to be at one of those junctures where tripping over the precipice cannot be ruled out.

Let me substantiate this further with what the European media has to say in recent days.

In a popular prime-time television discussion in Germany, the panellist, a member of the German Parliament quoting a blog said: “If all the scams of the last five years are added up, they are likely to rival and exceed the British colonial loot of India of about a trillion dollars.”

Banana Republic

One German business daily which wrote an editorial on India said: “India is becoming a Banana Republic instead of being an economic superpower. To get the cut motion designated out, assurances are made to political allays. Special treatment is promised at the expense of the people. So, Ms Mayawati who is Chief Minister of the most densely inhabited state, is calmed when an intelligence agency probe is scrapped. The multi-million dollars fodder scam by another former chief minister wielding enormous power is put in cold storage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chairs over this kind of unparalleled loot.”

An article in a French newspaper titled “Playing the Game, Indian Style” wrote: “Investigations into the shadowy financial deals of the Indian cricket league have revealed a web of transactions across tax havens like Switzerland, the Virgin Islands, Mauritius and Cyprus.” In the same article, the name of one Hassan Ali of Pune is mentioned as operating with his wife a one-billion-dollar illegal Swiss account with “sanction of the Indian regime”.

A third story narrated in the damaging article is that of the former chief minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda, who was reported to have funds in various tax havens that were partly used to buy mines in Liberia. “Unfortunately, the Indian public do not know the status of that enquiry,” the article concluded.

“In the nastiest business scam in Indian records (Satyam) the government adroitly covered up the political aspects of the swindle — predominantly involving real estate,” wrote an Austrian newspaper. “If the Indian Prime Minister knows nothing about these scandals, he is ignorant of ground realities and does not deserve to be Prime Minister. If he does, is he a collaborator in crime?”

The Telegraph of the UK reported the 2G scam saying: “Naturally, India's elephantine legal system will ensure culpability, is delayed.”

Blinded by wealth

This seems true. In the European mind, caricature of a typical Indian encompasses qualities of falsification, telling lies, being fraudulent, dishonest, corrupt, arrogant, boastful, speaking loudly and bothering others in public places or, while travelling, swindling when the slightest of opportunity arises and spreading rumours about others. The list is truly incessant.

My father, who is 81 years old, is utterly frustrated, shocked and disgruntled with whatever is happening and said in a recent discussion that our country's motto should truly be Asatyameva Jayete.

Europeans believe that Indian leaders in politics and business are so blissfully blinded by the new, sometimes ill-gotten, wealth and deceit that they are living in defiance, insolence and denial to comprehend that the day will come, sooner than later, when the have-nots would hit the streets.

In a way, it seems to have already started with the monstrous and grotesque acts of the Maoists. And, when that rot occurs, not one political turncoat will escape being lynched.


The drumbeats for these rebellions are going to get louder and louder as our leaders refuse to listen to the voices of the people. Eventually, it will lead to a revolution that will spill to streets across the whole of India, I fear.

Perhaps we are the architects of our own misfortune. It is our sab chalta hai (everything goes) attitude that has allowed people to mislead us with impunity. No wonder Aesop said. “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to high office.”

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in.)

Via - Hindu businessline