Maoists recount ‘martyrdom’ of cadres in poor attempt to gain public sympathy
| Date :01-Aug-2023 |
By Kartik Lokhande
In another indication of how weak the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) has become, the Red terrorists are trying to circulate the books featuring profiles of their top leaders since Charu Mazumdar, founder of violent Naxalbari movement. The books, originally published in 2014 and updated in 2022, appear to be the proscribed organisation’s poor attempt to gain sympathy among target groups. Ahead of its annual ‘Shaheed Saptah’, CPI (Maoist) has once again started circulating the two-volume books featuring the profiles of its Central Committee members, who were killed in encounter or died in past 50 years of the Left Wing Extremism that started in Naxalbari. The book has profiles of Charu Mazumdar, Kanhai Chatterjee, Shyam, Mahesh, Murali, Shamsher Singh Sheri, Chandramouli, Sande Rajamouli, Parimal Sen, Anuradha Ghandy, Patel Sudhakar, Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, Koteshwarulu, S A Rauf, and Sushil Rai.
Apart from circulating the books in English, Hindi, and Telugu languages, CPI (Maoist) has also issued a statement purportedly signed by Abhay, Spokesperson of Central Committee of the banned organisation. The statement, while recounting that total 14,800 of its leaders and cadres have been killed or died in the country so far, makes an emotional appeal to the ‘people’ to read the said books to ‘get inspired’. As is known, though the Naxalites/Maoists have been engaged in destabilising the Constitutionally established and democratically elected successive Governments of India, these outlaws treat their dead cadres and leaders as ‘martyrs’. To commemorate them, CPI (Maoist) observes ‘Shaheed Saptah’ every year from July 28 to August 3. They also erect memorials in remote and forested areas. However, the alert security forces foil the Maoists’ designs and demolish these memorials. Hence, the Maoists have flayed the security forces. At the same time, the Red ultras have started telling their cadres about how their leaders and cadres dedicated their lives to fighting the establishment.
The outlaws want to glorify their deceased leaders and cadres in a bid to attract new fighting force, which they are not getting these days. Some time ago, there was another document in which the Maoists had admitted to suffering reverses across the country due to Government’s concerted action. Making an attempt to overcome the demoralisation of cadres due to strong Government action, the Maoists planned to organise programmes commemorating some of these ‘martyrs’ in various cities and universities. As the Intelligence agencies came to know about this, they increased the vigil. As a result, now, the Maoists are planning to hold such programmes at non-descript places with poor and innocent villagers in attendance.
Probably for the first time, the outlaws have also started efforts to reach out to the family members of the deceased leaders and cadres. The Maoists plan to invite them to commemorative programmes so as to strengthen association with them without drawing them into the outlawed organisation. According to sources, the banned organisation is aiming at grooming some of the family members of the deceased leaders/cadres to become informers or couriers or providers of shelter. Their bid is to console family, create sympathy for anti-national Maoist cause, and revive the dwindling organisational strength in one way or the other. The security agencies are aware of such designs, added the source.
‘Martyrs? No. Terrorists.’
Nagpur-based Jan Sangharsh Samiti, which has been active in opposing the Maoists, has issued a statement criticising the outlaws for observing ‘Shaheed Saptah’. “Maoist leaders and cadres are not martyrs. They are plain terrorists. Such tendencies need to be crushed,” read the statement. Datta Shirke, President of Jan Sangharsh Samiti, and Pankaj Dhurve, Secretary, stated that the Maoists did not respect the Constitution of India, democracy, and makers of India. “Maoists are actively engaged in anti-national, anti-Constitution, anti-tribal, and anti-indigenous culture activities. They profess dictatorship. They kill tribals who serve as police or wish to change own life for better through education and jobs. They not only engage in destructive activities but also stall development. They extort money but talk of rooting out corruption,” he added.
In the statement, Jan Sangharsh Samiti pointed out that many cadres were leaving CPI (Maoist) as they were fed up of violence, leadership utilising extortion money for luxury, restrictions on married life etc. “We appeal to those who had joined Maoist organisation due to propaganda by the outlaws, to return to mainstream of society and follow the Constitutional path shown by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar,” read the statement.