Return to sanity

Published : Nov 05, 2010 00:00 IST

THE CPI(M) OFFICE in Lalgarh, Pashchim Medinipur district, set on fire by activists of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities on June 16, 2009. On October 10 this year, more than 12,000 supporters of the party marched to the office and reopened it without facing resistance from the Maoists.-

THE CPI(M) OFFICE in Lalgarh, Pashchim Medinipur district, set on fire by activists of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities on June 16, 2009. On October 10 this year, more than 12,000 supporters of the party marched to the office and reopened it without facing resistance from the Maoists.-

The CPI(M) has regained control of Lalgarh, with the Maoists retreating into their forest stronghold after 16 months of terror.

IN what can be termed as a major blow to the Maoist movement in West Bengal, the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), on October 10, peacefully regained control of Lalgarh in Pashchim Medinipur district, which for the past 16 months had remained a stronghold of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its front organisation, the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA).

On the morning of October 10, a procession of around 12,000 people carrying the red flag of the CPI(M) marched for more than 10 kilometres from Dharampur and entered Lalgarh unopposed and reopened the local party office that had remained shut since June 14, 2009, after a violent attack led by the PCPA against the CPI(M).

Deepak Sarkar, the CPI(M) district secretary, told Frontline: This was a culmination of the people's movement against Maoist terror. For the past few months they resisted the Maoists in and around the region and now it is our job to consolidate our position here and bring about peace and stability. They [Maoists] kill one man and spread terror in the hearts of thousands; we have begun the process of bringing stability in one small region, so that large areas can take inspiration from our effort. But the main message behind returning to Lalgarh is that the common people can indeed overcome their fear of the Maoists and have the courage to resist them.

As hundreds of people rendered homeless by the PCPA and the Maoists returned to their homes in the region after living in relief camps for over a year, and schools and shops reopened, it became clear that the influence of the Maoists in the region was indeed on the wane. The people have seen the true face of the Maoists, and their earlier mistrust of the police and the administration has also reduced a lot. More and more people are now coming forward to speak to the police and are extending support to them, Inspector General of Police, Western Zone, Zulfiquar Hasan told Frontline.

Apart from the reverses at the hands of the Central and State forces, the biggest setback for the Maoists over the past few months has been the growing resistance of disillusioned local people. The people have formed committees under various names, including gram bachao (save the village) committee and gram pratirodh (village resistance) committee, in different villages so as to stand up to the Maoists' and the PCPA's terror tactics. This, along with the Central forces' operations, saw an abatement of the alarming spread of Maoist activities, with the extremists being pushed further back into their forested core area in the Jhitka forest. There, too, they have begun to face the heat owing to declining support in the surrounding villages.

However, it is too early to infer from the recent developments that the backbone of the Maoist movement in West Bengal has been broken. Cornered they may be, but their programme of killing individuals continues. They will definitely try and retaliate, now that the CPI(M) has taken control of Lalgarh. And we suspect they will do so by intensifying sporadic killings, said a police source.

Mamata's call

Significantly, in the backdrop of the Maoists' waning influence in the Jangalmahal region the forested area comprising parts of the adjacent districts of Pashchim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia Trinamool Congress supremo and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's call for an agitation programme for the immediate withdrawal of Central forces once again raises suspicion of a nexus between her party and the Maoists.

Addressing a public meeting in Pashchim Medinipur town on October 6, Mamata Banerjee announced the Go Back Joint Forces' movement, which entailed taking to the roads in the Jangalmahal region and, if necessary, staging demonstrations in New Delhi. Her demand was based on her oft-repeated allegation that CPI(M) cadre were using the cover of the Central forces to terrorise people and forcibly regain control of the villages. Incidentally, she has not taken into account the growing resentment in the region against the rule of terror perpetrated by the Maoists and the PCPA and the resistance against them.

Responding to Mamata's allegation, Superintendent of Police, Pashchim Medinipur, Manoj Verma, told Frontline: All the operations here are carried out in a thoroughly professional manner. If anybody feels that the CPI(M) or any political party is benefiting from it, then that person is not aware of the nature of the operations. The safety of the forces has to be ensured, and that cannot be done if we share our plans and programmes with any outside party, whoever that may be. But I would like to point out that removal of the joint forces from the region will have disastrous consequences.

Though Mamata Banerjee had been against the deployment of Central forces right from the time the anti-Maoist operations began on June 18, 2009, her decision on an agitation programme runs the risk of displeasing her State and Central ally, the Congress. She was, however, careful to say that she would not betray the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), of which the Trinamool Congress is a key constituent. In the Assembly elections due early next year in the State, the Congress is a crucial, albeit junior, ally of the Trinamool Congress.

This was the second peace rally that Mamata conducted in Pashchim Medinipur in two months. The earlier one, held in Lalgarh, had the full support of the Maoists and the PCPA. However, her Maoist friends as she referred to them in her Lalgarh rally this time too, as on the last occasion, responded to her call for peace by murdering local people who they alleged were police informers. Hours after her rally on October 6, Gurucharan Mahato, a schoolteacher, was abducted from his house in Bankshol, and his bullet-ridden body was discovered in the early hours of the next day.

Pashchim Medinipur district still remains a political stronghold of the CPI(M) despite some erosion in its support. Mamata Banerjee's speeches at her peace rallies betray an overtly electoral sentiment that gives them the colour of election rallies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the entire Jangalmahal region did not vote in response to the Maoist call for a boycott a vote bank that Mamata Banerjee counted on to challenge the Left. This, of course, led to a brief cooling off of relations between the Trinamool Congress and the PCPA, but with the former resuming its call for withdrawal of forces, the two seem to have made up.

It is also an undeniable fact that the Maoist tactic of killing CPI(M) leaders, workers and even supporters, has facilitated the creation of a political vacuum that can enhance the scope for a change of power dynamics in the region. According to political sources, more than 200 people have been killed by Maoists in the region, and 95 per cent of them were murdered because of their association with the CPI(M).

In her October 6 rally, Mamata also directed her ire against Superintendent of Police Manoj Verma, reportedly calling him an agent of the CPI(M) and even threatening to drag him back to the people and make him apologise. With her continuing run of electoral successes against the Left Front, Mamata's attitude and language indicate that she has taken victory for granted in the Assembly elections. Her repeated ill-concealed threats against sections of the administration and the police who also fall into her broad category of CPI(M) agents, alongside sections of the media are an ominous sign of things to come should she eventually come to power in the State. It betrays a certain ruthlessness in attitude that can prompt the leader of the main Opposition in the State to try and intimidate public servants from performing their duties by hinting at a change of government.

Manoj Verma seemed unfazed by Mamata Banerjee's thinly veiled threat. He told Frontline: I am a public servant and I have certain duties and commitments. I have to protect the people from the Maoist menace and I have to drive the Maoists back. It is as simple as that. Nobody can stop me from performing my duties.

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