MAOISTS AND THEIR MINDLESS KILLINGS

Dr. Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao & Vuppala Narasimham
Dantewada district of Chattisgharh witnessed another brutal attack on the security personal by the Maoist cadre resulting in the death of 15 personnel. This is not the first such incident and not going to be the last one as the 50 odd year old armed rebellion, under different banners, as Maoists refuses to change their path of violence. This attack, like earlier onesmay result in the combing of reinforced forces, ending in the killing of Maoists in encounters. The wailing of civil liberties activists condemning the encounters and demanding the judicial enquiry, in a set pattern, which is going on for so many years.
The question which observers fail to understand are the dogmatic approach of the Maoists and their archaic philosophy that refuse to recognize the changes in the world. While the entire world is striving for their dream of ‘war free world’ and trying to resolve the contentious issues through a dialogue, perhaps Maoists are the only group which is dreaming the establishment of a regime after an armed rebellion. It was their baseless dream which is taking away the lives of ordinary constables, tribal people and other lower rung people. The tragedy is non-remorse attitude of the top Maoists leaders on the death of innocents and the fate the victim’s families are forced to undergo because of this mindless violence and killings.
Unfortunately, the Maoists are not realising the changes that came in the world in the post-Marx world. Marxism was born as a reaction to the conditions that were prevalent over a century ego where education was low, manual labour and exploitation of the workers was the order, Feudalism was at its peak and technology was at its nascent stage. The divisions, on whatever basis, are slowly bridged through by the technological advancements. It is now knowledge based world and there are only two sections, one with knowledge and the other without knowledge. Development and creation of wealth is through knowledge and the technology developed by groups with knowledge for the utilisation of the entire society. Because of this, all other class distinctions in the society are fast disappearing.
Knowledge is democratised and technology is empowering the people. The science and technology has achieved what the political philosophies, economic theories have failed to achieve. Ignoring these developments and people’s orientation towards education and usage of technology and are abhorring the dogmatic social fights for supremacy of old theories. The conditions, both social and economic, which prompted Naxalbari rebellion half a century ego and Maoists entered Dandakaranya forests in the name of liberation have all undergone change. The socio-economic and political philosophies have undergone sea change and with that the standard of living of those tribal groups improved. These changed social structure must have prompted the Maoists to review their concept of armed struggle, indiscriminate elimination of ‘class enemy’ and developed a new outlook to carry forward their work for the development of common people.
The Nepal experiment of Maoists and their violence under the leadership of Prachanda and their subsequent realisation that violence is no substitute to the vote and acceptance of democracy should have opened the eyes of Indian Maoists. However, the Indian Maoists are living in ‘Jurassic jungles’ still stick to Charu Majumdar path of mid-sixties which evolved from the ‘power through Gun’ of Mao ideology. But for the elimination in cold blood by Mao in China, Maoism must have been rejected by the Chinese. It is the fear of the Gun, detention without charges which is preventing the rebellion against Maoism in the country of its origin. The ‘urban naxal’ gangs surprise us by not criticising the Chinese way of eliminating people but being vocal on occasional deaths in custody.
The Russian Revolution, China Long March are no more catchy slogans and those two great events ended in the concentration of power in few individuals in the name of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Youth are no more attracted to that ‘armed struggle line’. The educational institutions of high standards which were one-time recruiting centres for Naxal/Maoists have withdrawn from the supply chain as the bright students realised the futility of waging war against the democratically elected government. They saw the futility of abandoning their studies and taking up arms and realised that they can serve the society with their knowledge rather than with the gun. The armed struggle under different ‘Red labels’ has not achieved anything barring the luxurious life styles of top Maoist leaders in their hideouts. They feed the gullible youth with the unachievable dream of hoisting the red flag on the Delhi parliament and make them the dumb lambs in the fight. It is the innocent tribal, poor youth who are falling in the encounters while the top leaders enjoy the life in the forest.
War is not a solution to the problems, and that is evident from the ongoing Ukraine Russia war. Even after a year of war there is no winner and the mighty Putin is learning the lesson in a hard way. Ukraine citizens are resisting in their own way. Even if we agree it is a war created by the US expansionist regime in NATO, the victims are ordinary citizens of both the countries and not Putin and Biden. Same thing was happening in the police-Maoist fight.
Maoists should come out of their shells and fossilised ideals. The technology development has reduced the gap between haves and have-nots’. The AI is taking people to the next, unexpected level. People want to be part of silent revolution of Chat GPT and certainly not for gun culture. The hard labour days are gone. It is machines, which have lessened the burden of hard work, took over the responsibility of creating the wealth. So the role of labour lessened and one time labourers are now skilled machine operators. Robots are performing great jobs and lessening the dangers.
While everything is changing and everyone is welcoming the change it is the Maoist mind set which is refusing to accept the change and continue with the unprovoked bloodshed, as is being witnessed in some Chattisgarh districts. Hope those jingle minded Maoist will heat the new developing concept and leave their fossilised Maoist minds in the forest and join the technology supported development to the betterment of the country.
(The views expressed are personal)