Written: By Azad, on behalf of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), February 2008.
First Publication: Issued by CPI (Maoist) Central
Committee, February, 2008.
This Edition: Marxists.org, September 2013.
Source: CPI(Maoist) Information Bulletin,
March 2008.
On 24 February, the Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced that he was prepared for talks wilh the Maoists if they gave up arms. This call for abandoning arms as a precondition for talks is quite amusing, to say the least, as it had come particularly in the wake of the daring Nayagarh multiple raids in which over a thousand arms were confiscated by the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army led by our Party. It is relevant to point out in this context that his claim of having recovered 80% of the arms and 70% of the ammunition seized by the Maoists is sheer humbug and an attempt to boost up the sagging morale of his mercenary police force. Most of the arms and ammunition had safely reached the Maoist bases breaking the encirclement attempts by the anti-Naxal special police and central paramilitary forces guided by helicopters.
The call of Naveen Patnaik to the Maoists to give up arms is as naïve, or rather as foolish, as someone asking him to give up exploitation and oppression of the people of Orissa and stop being a servile manager of the imperialists and comprador capitalists. Asking the Maoists to give up arms, while announcing in the same breath the setting up of another five India Reserve Battallions in the state and equipping the forces with the most sophisticated weaponry, is like the devil itself citing scriptures. The CC, CPI(Maoist), considers the proposal of talks by the Orissa government as a mere publicity stunt and reaffirms its commitment to spread the flames of armed struggle throughout the state of Orissa which is being reduced to a backyard of the imperialist MNCs and comprador big business sharks.
Ever since Naveen Patnaik assumed office as the Chief Minister of Orissa he has been serving as a misled agent of imperialist and comprador capital sucking the blood of the people of Orissa and draining the mineral and natural wealth of the state. His hands are stained with the blood of the poor adivasis of Kalinganagar where he acted as the hatchet man of the Tatas. To defend Korea's anti-national POSCO steel he continues to step up his fascist attacks on the people struggling against the project. His government had signed MOUs worth almost two lakh crore rupees for looting and draining the wealth of people out of Orissa. Lakhs of poor adivasis and other sections of peasantry are displaced by the mining and other industrial projects, SEZs etc., by the government of Naveen Patnaik while the ruling class politicians and bureaucrats pocket huge commissions in return for their loyalty.
It is at the behest of these anti-national leeches that Naveen Patnaik had unleashed fascist repression against the Maoist movement, arresting and murdering revolutionaries and their sympathizers. Just as it is impossible for Naveen Patnaik to scrap all the MOUs signed with POSCO, the multinational sharks and the compradors like the Tatas, Mittals, Ambanis, Jindals, etc., just as it is impossible for him to stop being a loyal agent of the imperialist and comprador capital, and the feudal forces in the countryside, so is it impossible for Maoists to lay down arms.
Our armed struggle will continue as long as exploitation, oppression and suppression persist. Demanding the Maoists to lay down arms and come for talks is only the ravings of a mad man. At best, it is a cheap publicity gimmick to win over a section of the people.
The Central Committee, CPI (Maoist), appeals to the progressive, democratic organizations and individuals and the entire people of Orissa to realize the hypocrisy and hollowness behind Naveen Patnaik's call to the Maoists to give up arms as a precondition for talks. It calls upon the people at large to unite to wage a militant mass movement to throw out POSCO, Tata Steel and other anti-people projects that are draining the natural wealth of Orissa while displacing hundreds of thousands of people from their hearths and homes.
The CPI(Maoist) reassures the people of Orissa that it will be in the forefront of their every just struggle and will intensify the armed struggle to throw out the feudal forces, imperialists, comprador big business and their agents like Naveen Patnaik in order to help the masses liberate themselves from the clutches of these leeches. And for this, our PLGA, with the active participation of the masses, will seize the arms from the enemy as it had done in Nayagarh and earlier in Koraput, R Udayagiri, etc., and will arm the masses to spread the people's war throughout Orissa. The fascist suppression campaigns by the state and central governments cannot stop this irresistible march of history.
Azad,
Spokesperson,
Central Committee,
CPI (Maoist)
February 26,2008