The Hindu : Kanu Sanyal disapproves of PW line

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 10, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Kanu Sanyal disapproves of PW line

By K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD Sept. 9. Formation of armed squads and carrying out military attacks in the name of revolutionary warfare, without support from the masses would only lead to disintegration of the movement in the long run. This is the firm view of Kanu Sanyal, one of the chief architects of Naxalbari movement. ``Without people's support the squads would become alienated and without people's participation no revolution can take place,'' the septuagenarian naxalite leader asserts with firm conviction. Mr. Sanyal, was in the city on Monday to participate in a meeting of the Central Coordination Committee of Communist Organisation of India (Marxist-Leninist) and the CPI-ML Unity Initiative.

In a freewheeling interview with The Hindu, Mr. Sanyal stressed that the COI-ML, of which is the general secretary, was again "fighting inch by inch'' in the cause of revolution in West Bengal and other parts of the country. The senior most leader of the Naxalbari movement, was somewhat disinclined to comment on the course of the revolutionary movement being led by the ultra left CPI- ML People's War (PW) in Andhra Pradesh and its surrounding States. However, without directly attributing his statements to the PW, Mr. Sanyal pointed out that any movement without popular mass base was bound to fail. "We have seen it in West Bengal during 1967, when Charu Mazumdar followed his avowed policy of concentrating more on military actions rather than mobilising and organising people for seizure of lands and properties of landlords.''

Mr. Sanyal recalls that during 1967 when the Naxalbari movement began, there was a great debate on involvement of people vis-a-vis taking up direct actions on the class enemies. While Mr. Sanyal laid great emphasis on mobilisation of people, his comrade Charu Mazumdar insisted on taking up actions against the class enemies. "We implemented both the strategies in two separate areas. While we mobilised people in plain areas of Darjeeling, Mazumdar implemented his theory in the Chat Hat areas and the result was there for everyone to see within seven months of the revolutionary movement being launched.''

Mr. Sanyal recalls with amazing clarity the happenings in Naxalbari in those days. "We mobilised people and took over properties, agricultural produce and land records of landlords without much violence within seven months in the plains of Darjeeling. In fact, our comrades killed only two people, Nagendar Roychowdary, a landlord who tried to kill our members and another police agent.'' But for these two murders in seven months, his movement was peaceful and fruitful too. However, in the Chat Hat area where Charu Mazumdar formed armed squads against the landlords had to face defeat as the latter succeeded in driving away the squads.

But how does he rate the revolutionary movement by the CPI- ML PW? "I have not been keeping a close watch on the PW movement, but I keep reading about it in newspapers.'' He finds it amazing the PW called for a poll boycott several times and on all those occasions, political parties had been successfully winning elections. "If they had really mobilised people and indoctrinated them, it would have been like a poll boycott call given by Subhash Ghising of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). Not even one per cent of votes were polled.''

``If the PW's claim is real, all those people in their areas should be holding arms and fighting against the State. Is it happening?'' he questions. Then why does the PW movement appear to spread to neighbouring States too? "It could be due to the Robin Hood factor, where people get enamoured of the ideology without actually participating in the revolutionary process.'' Such image could continue for some time, but one has to realise that the State is a very strong entity and to fight it one has to mobilise, organise, indoctrinate and then lead the revolutionary movement.

Mr. Sanyal points out that guerrilla war does not necessarily mean killing of police officers or blasting police vehicles. "Such incidents may create a furore and yield in some propaganda, but it does not help fight the State. Struggles can be built only by mobilising people.''

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