'Meet our demands and our leaders will talk'

Swedish writer Jan Myrdal and Gautam Navlakha, consultative editor, Economic and Political Weekly, travelled into the jungles of the eastern ghats to interview Mupalla Laxman Rao, the Communist Party of India-Maoist general secretary better known as Ganapathy.

In the first three segments of a 4-part interview, Ganapathy talked about the journey of the revolutionary movement. He also alleged that the central government had been using the country's army against its own people on the pretext of internal security. The CPI-Maoist general secretary says that the party is building its cadre base to wage a protracted war with 'enemy' forces.

In the final part, Ganapathy says the Maoists are prepared to come to the table for talks provided the government agrees to their main demands.

Part I: 'Maoists have traversed through a torturous path'
Part II: 'Indian army is being used against its own people'
Part III: 'They have Rashtriya Rifles. We have Marx'

What is your party's stance on talks with the government?

In general, people and Maoist revolutionaries do not want violence or armed confrontation with anybody. Only in unavoidable conditions do they take up arms and resist their enemies. So, we see this as a war of self-defence.

In this context of all-out war, we must recognise that the state of Andhra Pradesh has 130,000 forces, there are 45,000 forces in Chhattisgarh (to soon increase this by more than 20,000 forces), 160,000 forces in Maharashtra. Thus each state has a police force, which is more than the national level forces of many European countries.

The most cruel and dangerous Special Forces have been trained by the State along with various anti-people draconian laws. Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have between them more than 700,000-800,000 police forces. Out of this, 250,000 to 300,000 police forces are directly engaged against the people. Besides this, 100,000 central paramilitary forces have been deployed in these areas.

This is a brutal and violent campaign aimed at suppression of the political movement of the people, and for exploitation of minerals. In this context, if possible we can hope for some respite -- the longer the respite, the better it is for people.

While as long as the government is holding an automatic gun, one cannot talk. People will keep fighting. When bullets are being pumped, people never drop weapons or surrender.

To put concisely, the main demands that the party has placed in front of the government for any kind of talks are: (1) All-out war has to be withdrawn; (2) The ban on the party has to be lifted; and (3) Illegal detention and torture of comrades must stop and they should be immediately released. If these demands are met, the same leaders, who are released from jails, would lead the party in the talks.

Some Maoist outfits and democratic organisations can even remain outside the united front. How will you handle that?

Those in opposition are people's enemies and more than 95 per cent of the oppressed people would be against them. But even 5 per cent is a big number in the Indian context. The protracted peoples' war gives scope to destroy the enemy's political power both directly as well as culturally.

We give scope to small and medium bourgeoisie to grow with some restrictions so that they may not become anti-people, and black marketing, stock piling and speculating can be controlled.

Under the Jantana Circar, the trade and industry department handles the small traders so that the bourgeois outside cannot take advantage. So full freedom continues even if there are collaborators attempting to win them over. It is only in life and death context, that physical punishment is allowed. However, right now, while facing repression and war, we are in a complex situation, which has to be acknowledged.

CPI (Maoist) is a detachment of the world proletariat revolution. If it succeeds, we would say one part of the world would succeed -- it is not independent. It would work as a part of the world socialist revolution and it is strictly related to the success or failure of the world socialist revolution.