The growing rift between tribal leaders and non-tribal leaders is a major issue in the CPI (Maoist).
Restricted Communist Party of India (Maoist)Might want to forget 2021. It not only suffered a setback in the Andhra-Odisha border (AOB) region in Visakhapatnam district, which Left extremists consider their strongest stronghold after the Dandakaranya region, but also in its region. Self-declared ‘Red Corridor’ area.
Head of the Andhra Odisha Border Special Regional Committee, Death of Akkiraju Hargopal alias Ramakrishna alias RK After a prolonged illness in October, six top leaders were killed by Greyhounds in Visakhapatnam Agency’s Koyuru mandal in June, and during a gun battle by a 26-cadre C-60 force, including Central Committee (CC) member Milind Teltumbde. were killed. Maharashtra in Gadchiroli. Other setbacks include the arrest of Politburo and CC member Prashant Bose alias Kishan Da and his wife Sheela Marandi, who is also a CC member, and expulsion of another senior CC and Politburo member Kobad Gandhi for anti-party activities. .
But the major issue that emerged after the surrender of some prominent tribal leaders in the AOB region was the growing rift between tribal leaders and non-tribal leaders and activists within the Maoist framework. Surrendering to the police, Sudhir, Naveen and Swarna, who had led several major operations for the Maoists in the AOB region, stated that although the tribal people form the major fighting force in both the AOB region and Chhattisgarh, with the leadership Lives non-tribal people who are mainly from the upper castes and come from the plains of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. talking to HinduSudhir had said that tribal people are treated like “cannon fodder”. Sudhir had said that ever since the Maoists entered the AOB region from Telangana in the early 1980s, the leadership has been with the non-tribal people, while they are dependent on the tribal people for all their needs. He had also said that he was angered when non-tribal leaders ordered the killing of four tribal people last year by calling them police informers.
At present, the movement in AOB is led by Aruna, wife of CC member Chalapati, and Gajrala Ravi alias Uday, both non-tribals. Swarna had said that despite being a woman, Aruna treats women workers badly. Almost all tribal leaders of the AOB area like Kudumula Venkata Rao alias Ravi and Gemmeli Narayana Rao alias Jambari have died. Many have even surrendered.
To make matters worse, the recruitment in the region has reduced and hence, the Maoists are busy importing cadres from Chhattisgarh, who are mainly from the Koya tribe. This has resulted in cultural differences between the people of the area and the new recruits.
As there are no new recruits from the region, senior leaders who are aging are being forced to hand over the lower and middle level leadership to the tribal people. This results in cultural differences between different levels of leadership. Kundan Pahan, the tribal leader who surrendered in Jharkhand and Jambri (who was killed in action in 2017) in AOB also pointed this out. He had expressed displeasure over the “vulgarity” and “unacceptability” of non-tribal leaders.
Although this has been denied by the Maoists, who say that segregating people on the basis of caste, caste and religion is against their ethos, a document written by former general secretary of the party, Muppalla Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy, also found this. The issue has been mentioned. He warned that non-tribal leaders should change their approach and fix things with tribal leaders if they wanted to keep the movement alive.
sumit.b@thehindu.co.in
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