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Andhra Pradesh : Left extremism |
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A day after the CPI-ML People’s War held a massive public meeting in Warangal (Andhra Pradesh), the police have registered criminal cases against poet P. Varavara Rao, singer Gadar and the Revolutionary Writers Association president, G. Kalyan Rao, for their “provocative” speeches. They have not been arrested.
The registration of criminal cases by the Warangal police against the three emissaries of the CPI-ML People’s War (PW) for their “provocative speeches” during the Martyrs’ Memorial meeting is being interpreted as an indication that the Andhra Pradesh Government is shedding its soft approach towards the Maoist rebels.
The revolutionary movement led by the CPI-ML People’s War (PW) has received a shot in the arm with a large number of people turning up at the Martyr’s Memorial meeting organised by the Naxalite party’s emissary in the peace talks with the Andhra Pradesh Government, P. Varavara Rao, on July 28. Though the attendance of people fell short of the projected figure of lakhs of people, the way in which people responded to the speakers and the patience with which they listened to long speeches interspersed with songs sung by Jana Natya Mandali singers led by Gadar, showed that the PW’s popularity had not petered out but had only been eclipsed due to severe steps taken by the successive governments in Andhra Pradesh.
The meeting assumed significance since it was the first one to be organised on behalf of the PW after the peace negotiations were initiated between the Government and the Naxalite party. But none of the top leaders of the PW made a ‘dramatic’ appearance at the meeting, as was publicised.
The speeches were confined to eulogising the sacrifices made and reasserting the political ideology of the party. It was apparent that the speakers made a conscious attempt to remind people about the police repression and the sacrifices made by revolutionary cadres.
The successful conduct of the meeting provided an opportunity for the re-emergence of the party as a political organisation, shedding its image as a militant outfit only interested in engaging the security forces on a military plane.
The People’s War, however, made it clear that there was no question of its cadres laying down arms as demanded by the Government. The organisation was identified with an armed struggle and it could not lay down arms though it had agreed to a ceasefire in the interests of a cordial atmosphere for talks.
Though not ratified so far, the Government and the PW have entered into a agreement for a ceasefire to pave way for holding peace talks, the modalities for which are being worked out by the three emissaries’ poet P. Varavara Rao, singer Gadar and Revolutionary Writers Association president G. Kalyan Rao.
As part of measures to create an atmosphere conducive to talks, the Government had ordered a halt to anti-extremist operations, allowed the ban on the PW and six of its front organisations to lapse and permitted a Martyrs’ Memorial meeting in Warangal district . At the six-hour-long meeting, the emissaries launched a scathing attack on successive governments and police in particular, holding them responsible for the massive “state repression” in which hundreds of PW activists and sympathisers were killed.
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