Eva Cheng
Just after midnight on August 18, five grassroots organisers of the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (Liberation), retired after yet another busy day in the party's Paliganj local office, near Patna, the capital city of the north-eastern state of Bihar. Before long, they were shot dead in their sleep by armed members of the CPI-ML (People's War Group).
The August 24-30 weekly newsletter of the CPI-ML(L), ML Update, noted that the PWG "has officially justified its Paliganj act and threatened to carry out more such attacks in the days to come".
The slain comrades were Rajeshwar Mochi, Jagdev Prasad, Mandeep Goswami, Shivdani Yadav and Baleshwar Manjhi. According to ML Update, Goswam's wife and cousin were also killed by the PWG in earlier attacks. Two of those murdered were elected representatives in the local assemblies.
Police complicity
Police complicity in allowing the murderers to get away has added to the anger and pain. According to ML Update, while the killing was going on, police were patrolling the area. Arriving at the scene just after the killers absconded, the police made no attempt to chase them.
The ML Update added that while the police were busy removing the bodies of four of the slain comrades from the scene, "four gunshots were heard ... That was how ... Baleshwar Manjhi, the fifth comrade picked up from the office, was assassinated".
According to the August 23 Times of India, Bihar's ruling party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) raided the home of its legislator for Paliganj, Dinanath Singh Yadav, on August 22. This may have occurred to ease public pressure over the accusation that he was behind the murder. Yadav wasn't at home but five others were arrested, including two notorious criminals, reported the Times of India. The next day, according to the Indo-Asian News Service, the RJD expelled Yadav.
However, these token gestures weren't enough to stop a massive outpouring onto the streets of Bihar on August 23 in response to the CPI-ML(L)'s call for a bandh (strike) in that state and national protests elsewhere in India against the slaughter. In Bihar alone that day, more than 7000 protesters were arrested, including CPI-ML(L) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya.
ML vs ML?
There are dozens of ML groups in India which originated from the Naxalbari peasants' struggles in the West Bengal state in the 1960s (hence their label, "Naxalites"). Subsequent splits led to the formation of many ML groups, of which CPI-ML(L) and the PWG are among the biggest.
The CPI-ML(L) advocates and practices a mass action strategy, and has a strong grassroots following in Bihar. The PWG, however, favours a rigid vision of "protracted armed struggle", and carries out regular individual assassinations and small-scale bus and train bombing operations.
The CPI-ML(L) emphasises grassroots mobilisation but also engages in electoral work to complement its extra-parliamentary work. The PWG, on the other hand, categorically rules out electoral work and attempts to force this view on others — including other communist parties and progressive movements — sometimes by death threats, which are often carried out.
This is not the first time the PWG has killed activists of other left parties. Nor are CPI-ML(L) members its victims for the first time. But the scale of the murder seems to have escalated. Never has the CPI-ML(L) office been attacked in this manner before, according to ML Update.
A 1987-2004 database of PWG terrorist acts documented by the South Asia Terrorism Portal revealed that the PWG killed three CPI-ML(L) activists in Sevnam village, in the Jehanabad district of Bihar, on October 19, 2002, and killed one CPI-ML(L) supporter in Bahadurganj village in the Patna district of Bihar on September 18, 2002.
The SATP also documented that on August 2, 2002, four PWG members were killed by CPI-ML(L) members in Mahuagoan village, Jehanabad district, Bihar, which was followed the same day by the PWG abducting 10 CPI-ML(L) members. The next day, the PWG killed two of the abductees.
According to the ML Update's analysis, the PWG on this occasion was acting in collaboration with the murderous gang of the RJD. Claiming to represent India's Muslim minority and the Yadav caste, the RJD in fact serves the local ruling elite's interests around RJD head Laloo Prasad Yadav.
The August 24-30 ML Update said, "The PWG in Bihar has been working overtime as armed henchmen of the RJD. Its squads specialise in capturing booths for RJD and utilising the protection provided by the RJD regime to disrupt the growing unity and mobilisation of the people under the banner of the CPI(ML) [Liberation]."
'RJD by day, PWG by night'
It continued, "In Patna and Jahanabad, the people are quite familiar with the 'RJD by day and PWG by night' phenomenon".
According to the August 31-September 6 ML Update, seven left parties in Bihar have "called upon the Bihar Governor to immediately intervene in the Paliganj killing case and ensure that the killers of this heinous massacre are booked".
In a joint memorandum submitted to the governor, these parties have demanded the institution of a formal inquiry into the killings. They also demanded "the immediate arrest of Dinanath Yadav, an RJD MLA, who hired PWG criminals to eliminate five [CPI-ML(L)] cadres at Paliganj".
The parties are the CPI-ML(L), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Forward Bloc, the Socialist Unity Centre of India, the Marxist Communist Party of India and the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, September 8, 2004.
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