Bibhu Prasad Routray
Two
judicial decisions in Kolkata have opened up a dormant debate on the status of
the jailed cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist. Whether the arrested
left-wing extremists should be treated as 'political prisoners'? Whether India
should recognise the Maoist movement as essentially political in nature?
In
August, the Kolkata high court declared seven suspected Maoists, including CPI -Maoist
backed leader Chhatradhar Mahato and Maoist spokesperson for Bengal and Gaur
Chakraborty as 'political prisoners'. Following the trend, on September 21, a
sessions court in Kolkata bestowed a similar status on nine suspected Maoists --
including head of the outfit's technical committee, Sadanala Ramakrishna.
This
piece attempts to provide answers to three important questions relating to this
debate. First, do the Maoists qualify to be 'political prisoners'? Second, what
could have prompted the judiciary in Kolkata to take such decisions? Third, what
are the implications of such decisions on the future developments with regard
to Maoist activities in the country?
Extremism-
Politics dichotomy
'Political prisoner' status has been a long-standing demand of the CPI -Maoist.
It is one of the three pre-conditions laid down by the outfit for peace
negotiations with the government. Legal teams representing the Maoists have
persevered to gain a 'political prisoner' status for all the high-profile
Maoists lodged in different state prisons today.
This
yearning for a 'political' status, however, coexists with a strategy that seeks
to uproot all that is commonly understood as 'political'. For the Maoists, all
forms of elections held in India
are a sham. The outfit opposes the parliamentary form of government, regularly
calls for boycotting polling, coerces candidates to withdraw from the electoral
processes and kills those who disobey. The mass resignation of gram panchayat
members in various states under duress is a successful implementation of the
Maoist strategy. The demand for a 'political' status, thus, represents bit of a
paradox for the Maoists who display intense contempt for the political set-up.
The
Maoist objective of replacing the prevalent structure of governance relies not
on peaceful political means, but a doctrinaire violent protracted people's war
aimed at annihilating all class enemies. Although the Maoists justify their
violence as a response to the 'active and structural' violence of the State, more
often than not the 'annihilation' has been the first streak of actual violence
in areas now dominated by the extremists.
This
grand strategy of people's war has resulted at least 5,291 dead bodies of
civilians and security forces since 2004, the year the CPI -Maoist
was formed, till 2011, averaging 755 deaths per year and 63 deaths per month. An
overwhelming proportion among the fallen have been from the very classes and
communities the Maoists claim to be seeking to 'liberate'. The class war has
further left school and gram panchayat buildings, road stretches, bridges, electricity
and mobile phone towers destroyed. By no stretch of imagination, this trail of
blood, gory and destruction qualifies to be a political struggle.
The CPI -Maoist's
overt reliance on violence and mayhem is intrinsic to its larger strategy of
weakening the State, ensure its retreat if not disintegration, thus allowing
the Maoist functionaries a free hand to establish a janathana sarkar (people's
government) -- an euphemism for an extreme form of authoritarianism devoid of
any respect for commonly accepted legal principles including basic human rights.
Such forms of government are a reality in the territories under firm extremist
control.
This
extremist plan of action is more than evident from the profiles of the two of
the 16 Maoists granted 'political prisoner' status by the judiciary. Chhatradhar
Mahato, who started as a defender of tribal rights in the Jangalmahal area of West
Bengal 's West Midnapore district, swiftly
degenerated into running errands for the Maoist leader Kishenji. Mahato was a
key figure in the numerous Maoist activities in the district including giving
shelter to the extremist cadres and murdering cadres of the then ruling Left
Front. Mahato's People's Committee Against Police Atrocities was the front
organisation used by the Maoists to build up their 'liberation struggle' in the
area and provide their wanton violence a legal and humane facade.
Charges
against 60-year-old Sadanala Ramakrishna are even more unambiguous. RK, as he
is commonly known, was the head of the outfit's 'technical committee', overseeing
manufacturing arms and spares and supplying them deep into the Maoist
territories all over the country. During his stay in Kolkata, from where he was
arrested in February, the team headed by RK collected explosive substances, ammunition
and oversaw a project to manufacture rocket launchers and other weapons. Close
to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million), ammunition, explosive materials, several
diagrams and literature on rocket launchers were recovered from the arms
factory he had set up in Kolkata.
It
requires no complex science to understand that neither Mahato nor RK excelled
in essentially 'political' activities.
Why
the Decision?
Given
that the Maoist ideology and end game is fairly well articulated and understood
in the country's strategic circles, the court decision could be treated with a
sense of disbelief.
It
appears that the judgments are based on an unwarranted focus on the end 'political'
objective of the Maoists, while disregarding the 'means' the outfit adopts to
achieve such an objective. However, this sense of bewilderment needs to be
weighed in the wider context of the culture of political opportunism in West
Bengal .
Maoists
are not banned entities in West Bengal . While New
Delhi and all the states affected by Maoist activities
have proscribed the outfit, West Bengal has chosen to
bypass such a decision. The Left Front government considered the Maoist problem
a 'political' issue, which it said should be fought politically. Only after the
goons of the Left Front, the 'Harmad Bahini', were systematically butchered by
the Maoists did the Budhhadeb Bhattacharya government agree to a central force-led
initiative against the extremists. However, the facade of a political fight
against the Maoist was maintained till the very end of Left Front rule in the
state. It is, thus, not surprising that the Communist Party of India has welcomed the latest court decisions.
Surprisingly,
close to 18 months since the Left citadel was knocked off in West
Bengal by the Trinamool Congress, the status quo has been
maintained. In spite of Mamata Banerjee's proclivity to label all strands of
critics -- students, cartoonists, farmers -- as Maoists, the chief minister has
sidestepped the administrative expediency of proscribing the CPI -Maoist.
In
these circumstances, unless the law enforcement agencies manage to prove their
charges of sedition against the arrested extremists, nothing stops the courts
from declaring the Maoists, 'political prisoners'.
The
Bigger Picture
On
the surface, the 'political prisoner' status bestows only rudimentary benefits
on the arrested Maoists, which should have been granted to all prisoners under
the long-pending prison reforms project.
Compared
to the benefits some of our corrupt politicians manage to enjoy while behind
the bars, the provision of newspapers, better food and a cot to sleep for the
arrested Maoists vide the court judgment does not exactly threaten the
existence of the nation.
The
bigger issue, however, is the distinction the judgments establish between
Maoism and other forms of extremism. It elevates Maoist activities to a higher
level. It makes the Maoist violence an acceptable form of dissent articulation.
And it attaches a stamp of legality behind ideology inspired use of carnage for
political objectives.
This
is no doubt a dangerous and unacceptable trend. Needless to say, the court
rulings in West Bengal have been nothing sort of a moral
victory for the CPI -Maoist.
Republished in Eurasia Review
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