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The Rediff Interview/ Ganapathy

'Their murders will be avenged'

The second of a two-part interview that the outlawed People's War general secretary Ganapathy gave Chindu Sreedharan. Click here to read from the beginning.

How do you propose to protest the loss of your leaders? Through violence?

The protests are already on. Everyone can see the mood of the masses in the areas of our struggle. Protests and retaliatory actions have taken place in several parts of the country, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. The deep grief is being transformed into burning class hatred for class enemies.

Violence is only one of the means to counter the reign of terror and brutalities inflicted by the fascist regime on our movement. Our main emphasis is on involving more and more people in the struggle. Our targets are feudalism, imperialism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism, which are weighing down the Indian people.

Who are your immediate targets? What safeguards will you take to ensure that no civilian is hurt in retaliatory attacks?

The immediate targets are those who were involved either directly or indirectly in the cold-blooded murder of our comrades. We know the names of some who led the operation. We assure the grief-stricken party rank and file, the revolutionary masses and the families of these comrades that their murders shall be avenged even if it takes a bit of time. WE ALWAYS REPAY OUR BLOOD DEBTS TO THE ENEMY.

As regards civilian casualties, we shall see that no civilian loses his life. This has always been our policy. But unfortunate incidents have taken place. In the past six weeks [Ganapathy answered this in the second fortnight of January] around 150 major protest actions have taken place. There was only one incident in which some civilians died as our comrades did not know that there were more people inside the house, which they blasted after asking the inmates to come out. Our party has publicly expressed its regret at the loss of innocent lives. We shall see that such incidents do not recur.

How long do you think this wave of 'repression' will last? Can you elaborate on the measures you would adopt to counter it?

We are under no illusion that repression will come down. In fact, it will only be stepped up further in a vain attempt to implement the imperialist-dictated policies of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation by the Indian ruling classes. They know that the people will come out in massive protests against the policies of the ruling classes, and it is imperative for the ruling class and their imperialist mentors to suppress our party in order to make the impending people's upsurge leaderless.

But this fond hope of theirs will be dashed to the ground. On the contrary, our strength lies precisely in the people's growing consciousness. Our CC had chalked out a series of measures to counter the repression of the fascist state. They are in the process of implementation and the results will be evident shortly.

AP police chief H J Dora accuses your organisation of mindless violence. He also says the PW has ceased to take up "struggles on behalf of the people".

This is the most common accusation against dedicated revolutionaries fighting for the oppressed masses. In China too, at the time of revolution the communists were branded 'red bandits'.

What is meant by 'mindless violence'? The violence perpetrated by the goondas of the TDP and the Congress in Rayalaseema causes the death of hundreds of innocent lives every year. The violence perpetrated by the police goons of the goonda chief H J Dora and [AP Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu] Naidu in the vast rural tracts and cities of AP claimed over 600 lives in the past five years. Are these not mindless violence?

When revolutionaries kill an Umesh Chandra [an IPS officer] who had stained his hands with the blood of at least 30 of our comrades, it is mindlessness to the Doras and his likes!

Ours is a party committed to the ideology of communism and our cadres and leaders live among the oppressed masses, amidst terror unleashed by the ruling classes through their mercenaries like Dora. The violence that we indulge in is only as a counter to the mindless violence perpetrated day in and day out by the state's mercenary forces. Ask anyone on the street who they think are their enemies and the answer you invariably get is: it's the police.

Another amusing statement made by the DGP is that we are not taking up struggles on behalf of the people. As if the police chief has sympathy for people's struggles! Then what are we doing?

The fact is that we have taken up more struggles in the past five years under the Telugu Dravida Party rule than ever before. In AP alone, our party organised the people to occupy 35,000 acres of land since 1995. That is the reason why Naidu had to enact the drama of SC/ST corporations and other land reforms to dupe the masses.

Apart from land struggles we had taken up struggles on several issues ranging from wage rates for agricultural labour to remunerative prices for the middle and rich peasantry. We took up scores of issues and mobilised lakhs of people. Or else, what was the need to impose a ban on our party and mass organisations? What was the need to stop us from holding even a small meeting?

I challenge Dora and Naidu to allow our public meetings to take place without obstruction. Then they will find how much is our mass base and how none of the reactionary parties including that of the ruling TDP is a match before us in terms of mass support. The reason why Dora and Naidu are making such propaganda about 'mindless violence', 'isolation from people' and so on is to justify their policy of continuing the ban on our party.

They want to justify their terror tactics and their policy of treating our movement as a 'law and order' problem to divert the people from the fact that it is the policies pursued by the TDP in the state and the BJP-led government at the Centre that is the cause for their misery and sad plight.

Yours is an organisation that chose the path of violence to achieve its goal. By picking up the gun, you declared yourself outlaws. Isn't it ironical then that now you try to evoke the law of the country? Isn't it ironical that your activists now ask for inquiries and other remedies offered by a democracy?

A genuine question indeed! We know there are quite a few people who think along these lines. We know that what exists in the country is sham democracy. This democracy is only for the rich, propertied classes.

For the majority of the poor there are hardly any rights. It is only by building up struggle that they have achieved some rights. Thus it is the long-drawn struggles, bloody and bloodless, that brought about whatever democracy there exists in the system. And it is only through incessant struggle that they can defend and acquire more rights. We recognise this fact. Naturally, we will utilise all that the people have brought into being through their arduous struggle and innumerable sacrifices.

But we also recognise that the people cannot achieve their rights fully under this exploitative system. It is only by overthrowing the system that they can achieve real democracy. As long as they are allowed to conduct struggles legally without the use of brute force by the state they will use it to further their rights. Once their struggles are crushed with brute force, they have no other recourse but to take up guns. That was how we too picked up the gun -- not out of any romanticism.

We do not have any illusions on the undemocratic nature of the law of the country. We know that no judicial enquiry will bring any justice. The fate of several commissions like the Bhargava Commission is by now well-known.

Yet, we take up such demands in order to expose the hypocrisy of the ruling classes who swear by democracy and commitment to law. There is no contradiction at all in our declaring that there is no democracy in the present system and in utilising each and every opportunity to expose the system and to advance the movement.

Internal feuds have been part of every blood revolution in the world. The PW too experienced this [with the exit of Kondappalli Seetaramayya and Sathyamurthy]. In fact, the killed leaders are said to have been in the process of rising against you as they wanted more militarisation of the PW. Please comment.

This is only a figment of your imagination. In general, there have been only enemy agents within parties, not internal feuds. Infiltration by enemy agents is focussed as internal feuds by the ruling classes.

Contrary to what you imagine, our party has never experienced feuds. Feuds take place in reactionary and counter-revolutionary parties that are always after power, which they seek to acquire by any means. The palace coup of Chandrababu Naidu overthrowing his own father-in-law and founder of the TDP, NTR, is a standard example of such power-mongering feuds.

What our party has experienced in the past, on the other hand, is a different thing. There had been differences in political line in our party earlier in 1985-86 and 1991-92 when the then secretaries of the party -- Sathyamurthy in the earlier case and Seetaramayya in the latter -- created a crisis to cover up for their own respective weaknesses in leading the movement and their reluctance to take criticism.

The party then took disciplinary action against them by first issuing a warning and then, when they did not relent, by expelling them. The entire party stood as one though the top leadership of the time betrayed them. Hence, it is unfair to term these internal crises as internal feuds.

Moreover, in the present context there are no differences of any significance in the CC contrary to the police stories that have been circulating in the media. The entire CC is united on every major question and has a unified thinking on how to advance the people's war. It would not be an exaggeration if I say that our party has never been as united as at the present juncture.

Besides, most members of the existing team which constitutes the present CC has continuity since 1990 when the COC [central organising committee] was first formed, especially from the end of 1991 when the present team successfully fought back the disruptive activities of Seetaramayya's anti-party clique. Over the years, the team has developed collective understanding and unity of thought and action on most matters.

I am proud to state that the three martyrs were among our most dedicated practioners and outstanding spokesmen of our political line.

What progress have you made since the Party Unity merged with the PW? Then, you had claimed that it was a signal for more such mergers, but nothing seems to have come about. Does it not prove, as the State claims, that the PW is weakening?

As we had stated at the time of the merger, the unification of the two parties itself is a significant development in the Indian revolutionary movement. The merger was hailed by several revolutionary groups and individuals not only in India but also abroad.

Since then quite a few groups have shown interest in talks with the newly-merged party for unity. A few groups and individuals have come out of their respective parties and expressed their willingness to join our party. There certainly has been some polarisation in the Marxist-Leninist camp and we still hope that it will quicken as our movement advances.

As far as the claims of the State that we have weakened, I would only put one simple question: If the PW has become weak, then why has the State been making frantic efforts to increase the number of armed forces deployed against us?

Why was Bihar also included in the Joint Co-ordination Committee of the four states (Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa), now increasing it to five? Why are huge funds being provided by the Centre to the five states at a hectic pace? And why are the ruling classes talking of a ban on our party all over the country? Does not all these prove that our party has further strengthened after the merger?

Back to part one of the interview

ALSO SEE:
Karl and the Kalashnikov
'Unification is the only way to advance the cause of the Indian revolution'
'All revolutionary ranks must unite'

The Rediff Interviews

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