CPI (Maoist)

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist banned communist political party and militant organization in India which aims to overthrow the "semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian state" through protracted people's war. It was founded on 21 September 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People's War (People's War Group) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). The CPI (Maoist) are also known as the Naxalites, in reference to the Naxalbari insurrection conducted by radical Maoists in West Bengal since 1967. The party has been designated as a terrorist organisation in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act since 2009.

In 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to the Naxalites as "the single biggest internal security challenge" for India, and said that the "deprived and alienated sections of the population" form the backbone of the Maoist movement in India. The government officials have declared that, in 2013, 76 districts in the country were affected by " Naxal terrorism", with another 106 districts in ideological influence. In 2020, the activities of the party began to increase again in Telangana and other areas. Chhattishgarh is often affected by the party's militant activities.

History

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) was founded on 21 September 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People's War (People's War Group), and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). The merger was announced on 14 October the same year. In the merger a provisional central committee was constituted, with the erstwhile People's War Group leader Muppala Lakshmana Rao, alias "Ganapathi", as general secretary. Further, on May Day 2014, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Naxalbari merged into the CPI (Maoist).

Ideology

The CPI (Maoist) observes that the Indian state is being "run by a collaboration of imperialists, the comprador bourgeoisie and feudal lords." According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the two factions of the Party adhered to differing strands of communism prior to their 2004 merger, although "both organizations shared their belief in the 'annihilation of class enemies' and in extreme violence as a means to secure organizational goals." The People's War Group (PWG) maintained a Marxist–Leninist stance, while the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) took a Maoist stance. After the merger, the PWG secretary of Andhra Pradesh announced that the newly formed CPI-Maoist would follow Marxism–Leninism–Maoism as its "ideological basis guiding its thinking in all spheres of its activities." Included in this ideology is a commitment to "protracted armed struggle" to undermine and to seize power from the state. On May Day 2014, Ganapathy and Ajith (Secretary of the CPI (ML) Naxalbari) also issued a joint statement stating that "the unified party would ontinue totake Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as its guiding ideology."

The ideology of the party is contained in a "Party Programme." In the document, the Maoists denounce globalisation as a war on the people by market fundamentalists and the caste system as a form of social oppression. The CPI (Maoist) claim that they are conducting a "people's war", a strategic approach developed by Mao Zedong during the guerrilla warfare phase of the Communist Party of China. Their eventual objective is to install a "people's government" via a New Democratic Revolution.

Location and prominence

CPI(M) currently operates in the forest belt around central India in the states of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha. It is present even in remote regions of Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, as well as in Bihar and the tribal-dominated areas in the borderlands of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Odisha. The CPI (Maoist) aims to consolidate its power in this area and establish a Compact Revolutionary Zone from which to advance the people's war in other parts of India. A 2005 ''Frontline'' cover story called the Bhamragad Taluka, where the Madia Gond Adivasis live, the heart of the Naxalite-affected region in Maharashtra. Recently, the Indian government has claimed that in 2013, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal experienced deological"influence" of "Left Wing Extremism"; while claiming that armed activity by the "Left Wing" extremists was noticed in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal.

Organisation

The current General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) is Nambala Keshava Rao ''alias'' Basavaraj. He was appointed after Muppala Lakshmana Rao, who uses the alias "Ganapathy". The party hierarchy consists of the Regional Bureaus, which look after two or three states each, the State Committees, the Zonal Committees, the District Committees, and the "dalams" (armed squads). Communist writer Jan Myrdal noted that the CPI (Maoist) also organises events like "The Leadership Training Programme" to endure the forces of the state.

Politburo

As per the communist party policies the highest decision making body of the CPI (Maoist) is the Politburo, with thirteen or fourteen members, six of whom were killed or arrested between 2007 and 2010. Prashant Bose ''alias'' "Kishan-da" and Katakam Sudarshan ''alias'' Anand, are the two most prominent Politburo members of CPI (Maoist). B. Sudhakar ''alias'' "Kiran" is another Politburo member of CPI (Maoist). Shamsher Singh Sheri ''alias'' Karam Singh, who died of Cerebral Malaria-Jaundice on 30 October 2005, was also the party's Politburo member. Between 2005 and 2011, the State captured several Politburo members of the party, which includes – Sushil Roy ''alias'' Som, Narayan Sanyal ''alias'' N. Prasad, Pramod Mishra, Amitabh Bagchi, Kobad Ghandy, Baccha Prasad Singh, Anukul Chandra Naskar and Akhilesh Yadav. Ashutosh Tudu and Anuj Thakur are another two of the arrested Politburo members of the party. Arvind Ji alias Deo Kumar Singh, a politburo member died in heart attack on 21, March 2018. Among those killed, Cherukuri Rajkumar ''alias'' " Azad" and Mallojula Koteswara Rao ''alias'' "Kishenji", were two past members of the CPI (Maoist)'s Politburo. Politburo member Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramkrishna died in October 2021 due to illness.

Central Committee

The Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) takes command from the Politburo and passes on the information to its members, and has 32 members. During an interview in 2010, Anand told media personnels that out of the 45 members of the Central Committee of CPI (Maoist), 8 has been arrested and 22 has been killed by the agencies of the Indian government. Anuradha Ghandy, who died on 12 April 2008, was an eminent member of CPI (Maoist)'s Central Committee. Kadari Satyanarayan Reddy ''alias'' " Kosa", Thippiri Tirupathi ''alias'' "Devuji", Malla Raji Reddy and Mallujola Venugopal ''alias'' "Bhupati" are another three cadres and Central Committee members of the party. Madvi Hidma is the youngest Central Committee member of the party. As of 22 September 2011, nine of the Central Committee members were jailed, which includes – Moti Lal Soren, Vishnu, Varanasi Subramanyam, Shobha, Misir Besra, Jhantu Mukherjee, Vijay Kumar Arya. One more Central Committee member, Ravi Sharma, was also captured later. Ginugu Narsimha Reddy alias Jampanna surrendered to police in December 2017. Varkapur Chandramouli, Patel Sudhakar Reddy, Narmada Akka, and Milind Teltumbde who were killed by armed forces. Another Central Committee member Haribhushan died due to Covid. Another CC member B.G. Krishnamoorthy alias BGK, Vijay was arrested in 2021 November along with another PLGA Savithri by Kerala ATS.

Publication division

The CPI (Maoist) has a "publication division". Besides volunteering as a Politburo member of the party, B. Sudhakar ''alias'' "Kiran" also works for its publication division.

Military Commissions

The Central Military Commission (CMC) is the main armed body of the CPI (Maoist), and it is constructed by its Central Committee. In addition to the CMC, the party has also raised state military commissions. The CMC is headed by Nambala Keshava Rao ''alias'' Basavaraj. Anand and Arvind Ji are another two members of the organisation's CMC. Anuj Thakur is an arrested member of the CMC of the party. Kishenji and Chandramouli were also the members of the CPI (Maoist)'s CMC.

Technical Committee

Central Technical Committee (CTC) is given the responsibility of fabricating weapons and explosives. The Technical Committee consists of few selected members having special knowledge on science and research and works under the direct supervision of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Party. Sadanala Ramakrishna, a senior Maoist leader was the Secretary of the Committee who was arrested in February 2012 in Kolkata.

Estimated strength

The military wings of the founding organisations, the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (the military wing of the MCCI) and the People's Guerrilla Army (the military wing of the PWG), also underwent a merger. The name of the unified military organisation is the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), and it is grouped into three sections — the Basic, the Secondary and the Main squad. All the PLGA members are volunteers and they do not receive any wages. During his stay in the guerrilla zones, Jan Myrdal noted that the female cadres of CPI (Maoist) constituted about 40% of its PLGA, and held numerous "command positions"; but currently, the female members comprises 60% of the Maoist cadres, and women commanders heads 20 of the 27 divisions of the guerrilla zones.

P.V. Ramana, of the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi, estimates the Naxilities' current strength at 9,000–10,000 armed fighters, with access to about 6,500 firearms."A spectre haunting India", ''the Economist'' Volume 380 Number 8491 (19–25 August 2006) The analyses, as of September 2013, suggested that the estimated number of PLGA members has decreased from 10,000 − 12,000 to 8,000 − 9,000. But, Gautam Navlakha has suggested that the PLGA has strengthened over the past few years, and has mustered 12 companies and over 25 platoons and a supply platoon in 2013 as compared to 8 companies and 13 platoons of 2008. The People's Militia which is armed with bows, arrows, and machetes is and is believed to logistically assist the PLGA is estimated to be around 38,000.

Medical units

The Maoists had structured "medical units" in the villages of Bastar, and the CPI (Maoist) operates "mobile medical units." Rahul Pandita writes:
Furthermore, the CPI (Maoist)'s medical services squads also move from village to village and provides "basic medical training" to selected young tribal people which enables them to identify frequently occurring diseases through their presages so that they can also distribute vaccines to the patients.

Frontal organisations

The frontal organisations of the party include the Radical Youth League, Rythu Coolie Sangham, Radical Students Union, Singareni Karmika Samakya, Viplava Karmika Samakhya, Porattam Kerala, Ayyankali pada Kerala, Njattuvela Kerala and All India Revolutionary Students Federation, Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan, and Chetna Natya Manch.

Strategy

Governance tactics

The "organising principles" of the Maoists are sketched out from the Chinese Communist Revolution and the Vietnam War. The CPI (Maoist) has organised Dandakaranya into ten divisions, each comprising three area committees; and every Area Committee is composed of several Janatana Sarkars (people's governments). The party says that a Janatana Sarkar is established by the election procedure involving a group of villages, and has nine departments — agriculture, trade and industry, economic, justice, defence, health, public relations, education and culture, and jungle. The Janatana Sarkar provides education up to primary level in the subjects of mathematics, social science, politics, and Hindi, in the "camp schools" using the textbooks published by the party in Gondi. They also use DVDs to educate the children in the streams of science and history.

In their efforts to intimidate their political adversaries and consolidate control, the Naxalites tax local villagers, extort businesses, abduct and kill "class enemies" such as government officials and police officers, and regulate the flow of aid and goods. To help fill their ranks, the Maoists force each family under their domain to supply one family member, and threaten those who resist with violence.

The organisation has been holding "Public Courts", which have been described as kangaroo courts, against their opponents. These "courts" function in the areas under de facto Maoist control. The Maoists have also taken care to demolish government institutions under their ''de facto'' jurisdiction. They have been involved in several cases of blowing up schools and railway tracks, and keeping the areas under their control away from modernity and development, typically the uneducated rural populace.

Military strategies and tactics

The CPI (Maoist) rejects "engagement" with what it terms as the "prevailing bourgeois democracy" and focuses on capturing political power through protracted armed struggle based on guerrilla warfare. This strategy entails building up bases in rural and remote areas and transforming them first into guerrilla zones, and then into "liberated zones", in addition to encircling cities.

The military hardware used by Maoists, as indicated through a number of seizures, include RDX cable wires, gelignite sticks, detonators, country-made weapons, INSAS rifles, AK-47s, SLRs, and improvised explosive devices. The Maoists condemn the accusations that they manage arms through China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. On the subject, Ganapathy says, "Our weapons are mainly country-made. All the modern weapons we have are mainly seized from the government armed forces when we attack them."

The CPI (Maoist)'s General Secretary says that they keep on appealing to the "lower-level personnel" in the paramilitary and police forces not to attack them, but rather "join hands with the masses" and "consciously" point their guns towards whom the Maoists view as "real enemies." They further claims that "only when the government forces come to attack us aoistscarrying guns do we attack them in self-defence." In Jharkhand, the police have also seized posters from various places which read, "Policemen keep away from the green hunt and try to be friends of poor. Police jawan, do not obey orders of the senior officials, instead join the people's army."

Funding

Some sources claims that the funding for the Maoists comes from abductions, extortion and by setting up unofficial administrations to collect taxes in rural areas where official government appears absent. Poppy cultivation is another major source of funding for Maoists in the Ghagra area of Gumla district in Jharkhand and in parts of Gumla, Kishanganj and Purnia districts in Bihar. Naxalites have been charged by the government with running an extortion economy in the guise of a popular revolution, extorting vast amounts of money from local branches of mining companies and other businesses. Security forces claim that opium fields are hidden among maize crops. Reports from Debagarh district in Odisha indicate that the Naxals also support hemp cultivation to help fund their activities. According to a 2008 report titled 'Naxalite scenario in Jharkhand State' prepared by the Jharkhand Police, Maoists were using illegal mining as a tool to fund their campaign. At that time, Maoists were involved in illegal mining in 18 districts.

Ganapathy has rejected these claims as false accusations, stating that "Maoists were fighting hard to keep mining companies out of areas under Maoist control and that the party mainly collects donations from the people and funds from the traders in our guerrilla zones... ealso collect rational levy from contractors who take up various works in our areas."

Legal status

The party is regarded as a "left-wing extremist entity" and a terrorist outfit by the Indian government. Several of their members have been arrested under the now-defunct Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act. The group is officially banned by the state governments of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh, among others. The party has protested these bans. The Indian government, led by the United Progressive Alliance, banned the CPI (Maoist) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) as a terrorist organisation on 22 June 2009. On 22 June 2009, the central home ministry, keeping in mind the growing unlawful activities by the group, banned it under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Earlier, the union home minister, P. Chidambaram had asked the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to ban the Maoists following the Lalgarh Violence. Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and all its formations and front organisations have been banned by the Government of India.

Following the ban, the Maoists are liable for arrest under the UAPA. They are barred from holding rallies, public meetings and demonstrations, and their offices, if any, will be sealed and their bank accounts frozen.

Controversies

Opposition

The Party is regarded as a serious security threat and the Indian government is taking countermeasures, pulling the affected states together to co-ordinate their response. It says it will combine improved policing with socio-economic measures to defuse grievances that fuel the Maoist cause.
In 2005, Chhattisgarh State sponsored an anti-Maoist movement called the Salwa Judum. The group, which the BBC
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