Two Maoists were killed by the police last month in a forest in Kerala. The CPI state secretary and other civil rights activists have condemned the killings alleging it was a false encounter. The LDF government is being accused of adopting the same approach as other state governments. Can you explain the CPI(M) position?

·        P K Rajen, Kochi

SOME Maoist squads have been operating in the forests in the tri-junction between Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for the past few years. They have resorted to some attack on forest offices, vandalised a private resort and threatened government personnel in Wayanad and adjoining forest areas. It is in response to these attacks that the police in Kerala have been conducting operations to apprehend them. So far no Maoist belonging to these squads has been arrested or killed in these operations till the shooting of Kuppusamy, a Maoist leader and member of the Central Committee of the Maoist Party and another cadre Ajitha. The incident took place in the Nilambur forest in the Western Ghats.

The police version is that they died in the exchange of fire that took place after the police discovered their hideout. The Maoists are an ultra Left adventurist group who have resorted to armed struggle to achieve their political goals. Unlike some other naxalite groups, the Maoist Party is wedded to armed attacks on all those they consider class enemies. Their misguided politics has over the years degenerated into killing Left party activists in various places. The CPI(M) has lost in the last few years cadres who were killed by the armed squads of the Maoists in united Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The worst example of Maoist terror and complicity with the ruling class is the campaign unleashed by them of targeting and killing CPI(M) cadres in West Bengal. In the years 2009 to 2011 the Maoists colluded with the Trinamool Congress to undertake this despicable killing spree. More than 200 CPI(M) cadres and supporters were murdered by the Maoist gangs. The CPI(M), unlike what the Kerala state CPI secretary has stated, does not consider these armed gangs as fighters for the people. The CPI(M) has resolved to fight the Maoists politically and ideologically and to work to isolate them from the people. In Kerala, thanks to the powerful presence of the CPI(M) and the Left forces, the Maoists have not been able to make any noteworthy advance. 

However, the Party has always opposed the use of the State machinery to conduct extra judicial executions and false encounters to eliminate the Maoists.  In states like Chattisgarh, the State has unleashed widespread repression in the name of fighting the Maoists which actually targets innocent tribal people.

The LDF government has immediately announced a magisterial enquiry into the incident in the Nilambur forest. This is as per the Supreme Court directive on encounter deaths.  The CID is also investigating the matter. On the basis of the enquiry, the facts and the truth can be verified. The CPI(M) does not wish to prejudge the nature of the incident before the enquiry comes to any conclusion.