10) DEADLY CONFLICT CONTINUES IN BENGAL

(The following article is from the March 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

The Left Front government of India's Bengal state, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has been under intense attack in recent months, from right-wing forces, regional separatist movements, and Maoist groups. We report here some news of the CPI(M)'s response, from our correspondent in India, B. Prasant.

     Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently addressed a series of rallies in north Bengal, at Siliguri, Coochbehar, and Falakata in Jalpaiguri. Each was packed with people from all sections of society, with women present in notably large numbers. They hung to Buddhadeb's words of hope, of development, of poverty alleviation, of peace.

     February 12 was the date of the assembly in Siliguri, held by the Darjeeling Left Front. Speaking strongly for the unity and integrity of the nation, Buddhadeb pointed an accusing finger at the separatist moves initiated by the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM), which want to carve a separate state out of Bengal.

     Under present arrangements, the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong, and Kalimpong are under the Hill Council, and Buddhadeb noted that more power could be transferred to this autonomous body. He reminded the audience that during previous attempts to divide up states along lines of language or other regional features, the political parties of the ruling classes themselves had split with dangerous results. Buddhadeb urged the people of the plains and the hills to remain united and to work for the development of the region, for which purpose a divisive move would be disastrously counter-productive.

     The basic theme of Buddhadeb's address at Coochbehar on Feb. 13 was the need to organise mass protests against the actions by violent thugs in the pay and protection of their chieftains. The rally was another mammoth affair as people streamed in from far corners of the district.

     While bitterly critical of the anti-people Trinamul Congress bourgeois party and its "rainbow coalition of lackeys," Buddhadeb also commented on separatist groups like the "greater Coochbehar," and the KLO-KMP. He also attacked the right-wing UPA central government on the issue of rising prices. Despite difficult circumstances, the Bengal Left Front government has kept the price of several basic commodities to a reasonable limit in recent years, Rs 2 per kilo rice being a prime example.

     The next whistle stop for the chief minister was Falakata, where he addressed yet another big gathering on Feb. 14. Here he again condemned the central government for raising prices, and called on the people to descend on Delhi when Parliament resumes March 12. This is necessary, he said, to fill the ears of the government with a roar of protest against all its anti-poor moves.

     Buddhadeb repeatedly called for greater unity of the masses against the policies of union government, the depredations of the separatists, and the conspiratorial moves of the divisive forces.

     Over 100 CPI(M) activists have been murdered over the last year in Bengal, as the various opposition forces attempt to destabilize India's longest-running progressive state government.

     The latest Maoist attack was launched on Feb. 15 by well-armed gunmen on the Silda camp of the eastern Frontier Rifles, mostly Gorkha personnel are members of the EFR. The attack came in the afternoon of a busy market day, with victims including local residents as well as a number of the local military force, and about a dozen of the Maoists.

     Our correspondent reports that this large-scale military action followed the arrest over the previous two weeks of about 70 local Maoist leaders and activists. There have also been caste-based splits among the armed opposition groups in this area. but in his view, "the most important factor is that the villagers are no longer fearful of the `Maoist' gunmen along the entire western part of the red clay zone of Bengal. It would be unhistorical to read too much into this, as some well-wishers of us have done to the extent that the villagers are seen to be rebelling against the mightily armed marauders. This will ultimately happen - and this is what causes the killers an overwhelming fear to be felt creeping in."

     Prasant also points out an economic factor. "The `Maoists' have carried on a lucrative trade in felling trees, establishing a nexus with the forest mafia. This could only be done with at least a reluctant, fear-laden participation of the rural masses. This chain of exploitation has been snapped in many areas as the tree-cutters, the headload carriers, and the forestry smugglers have learnt that getting cosy with the `Maoists' was costing them too much - in terms of livelihoods as well as lives."

     What is new, he concludes, is the rising curve of people's anger at the killings: "This shall be a vastly worrying factor for the guilty whose hands have been seen dipped in the blood of the innocent, too many times now."