Author: Omer Farooq
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 16, 2003
In an exclusive interview with The
Pioneer inside dense forest areas of Adilabad, senior CPI(M-L)-People's
War (PW) leader Malkapuram Bhaskar alias Chandranna admitted that his group
has close ideological, political and military links with Maoists in Nepal
and 10 other Maoist organisations operating in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
He said these organisations along
with with PW have formed an umbrella group - Confederation of Maoist Organisations
in South Asia - to take the Left wing extremist movement forward. He also
confirmed that a corridor is being created from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh
through Bihar and other states for belt better coordination and closer
relations among these "revolutionary" groups. "In India, the People's War
and Maoist Communist Centre of Bihar are the two biggest revolutionary
parties. In Nepal the movement is also very strong. We help each other
with military training but we don't procure arms from Nepal," Chandranna
said.
Chandranna, the senior-most leader
of the group in the North Telangana region and a spokesman of the North
Telangana Special Zone Committee of PW added: "The BJP Government at the
Centre and the Telgu Desam Government in Andhra Pradesh has launched a
war to eliminate the PW at the behest of the World Bank and other neo-imperialist
and neo-colonial forces, including the US." Charging several State Government
ministers, including M Damodar Reddy, Mandava Venkateshwara Rao, TDP MP
from Adilabad Venugopala Chary and the Union Minister of State Vidyasagar
Rao as responsible for the campaign against the group, he said the PW will
not "spare them". "We will strike at the first given opportunity," he said.
He also promised action against
TDP and BJP cadre and police informers. Flanked by another senior figure
of the group, Jagan alias Seshu, the self-styled commander-in-chief of
People's Guerrilla Army, he said the PW was facing the worst-ever four-pronged
"low-intensive attacks" adopted by the Government and the police.
Speaking on the recent attacks where
senior PW leaders were killed, he said: "This is the third major attack
on the PW. But like the past two major setbacks during the NTR and Congress
regimes in the State, we will overcome this one too. We have learnt a lesson
from the setbacks and death of some of our leaders. We will come back with
greater strength and vigour," he said. As the young and fighting fit cadres,
including women, armed with sophisticated guns stood guard, Chandranna
strongly denied claims made by the Government and the police that after
these killings the PWG has become weak and there was intense infighting.
"This is false propaganda, a part
of the psychological war against the PW. It is all aimed at creating confusion
among the people about PW. They had carried out a similar propaganda when
three of our top leaders were killed in 1999, but we recovered. We will
recover from the present setbacks too," he said. Admitting that the organisation
was under tremendous pressure from the police, Government and the surrendered
Naxalites, Chandranna: "Ours is a fast growing party and today it is present
in 14 states. we will continue to expand," he said.
He added that the party will continue
to carry out the attacks against the Government, police and politicians
in the region. He also defended the policy of the destruction of public
properties. Chandranna warned that a Kashmir-like situation will emerge
in Andhra Pradesh because the police is training former Naxalites against
the PW in the villages. "The TDP and BJP leaders and police officials are
organising and nurturing these gangs to wipe out the PW but they will not
succeed. It has become a scandal involving crores of rupees with police
officials making siphoning of these funds," he said.
