Maoist violence ’social terrorism’, says legendary Naxalite

KOLKATA - Ashim Chatterjee, one of the leading figures of the bloody Naxalite revolt of the late 1960s, says the mass massacre Tuesday of security personnel in Chhattisgarh is “social terrorism” and blamed Maoists for causing “meaningless” bloodshed.

Chatterjee, who was one of the confidants of Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) founder Charu Majumdar, said revolutions never succeeded in countries that had a parliamentary system.

“In China, the case was different. There, the armed struggle succeeded in the face of a counter armed struggle. But in India, we have a parliamentary system. History tells us that no revolutionary movement has succeeded in places where the parliamentary system prevails,” Chatterjee, now 66, told IANS in an interview.

Criticising the present lot of Maoists, he said they were only relying on arms and operating from the jungles by ignoring people and the doctrine of class struggle.

“Firstly, the conditions which set the stage for a revolutionary movement are absent in India. Secondly, these Maoists have not cared to build up class struggle. And when you fight against the state without caring to build up class struggle, that amounts to social terrorism. The blood that is being shed is meaningless,” he said.

In 1970, Chatterjee was the youngest member of the CPI-ML Central Committee that was intent on unleashing an armed revolution to seize power in India. The CPI-ML enjoyed the backing of China.

He was secretary of the party’s Bengal-Bihar-Orissa border region committee and tried to lead an armed struggle in the Debra and Gopiballabhpur areas of West Bengal in March 1971 — when the Naxalite movement was at its peak, leaving thousands dead.

The movement failed, and Chatterjee was arrested in November 1971. Within a year, the CPI-ML was crushed and its founder leader Majumdar died in the Presidency Jail of Kolkata.

Asked whether he felt that the path adopted by the Maoists then was also wrong, Chatterjee said: “Naxalbari was a struggle for land. That was the right path. That is relevant even now. This battle for land can one day give birth to a revolutionary movement.

“But our policy of individual killings was wrong. When I started a movement at Gopiballabhpur in Midnapore district, there were 2,000 people with us. Had our path been right, I would have got 20,000 people with me. But when I was arrested, I did not even find 200 people with me.

“When our Gopiballabhpur movement fizzled out, I realised that Charu Majumdar’s path was wrong.”

(Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)