The BJP’s agenda is to reinforce corporate exploitation and perpetuate the oppressive violence inherent in Sanatana Dharma. All these policies, cumulatively, while continuing the old inequalities, are also fostering new forms of disparity.
Published Feb 13, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 13, 2025 | 9:00 AM
Regardless of which party holds power in the states, the central government has taken the lead in suppressing the Maoist movement. (Wikimedia Commons)
Synopsis: The BJP is well aware that the Maoist movement has the capability, vision, and initiative to build alternatives in the very spheres of life from which the saffron party seeks to establish a Corporate Raj and Hindu Rashtra. Therefore, the first step is to turn this country into a “Maoist-free India.” Only then can it be transformed into a corporate India.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that the dream of a Maoist-free India is coming true. His egregious statement has come in the wake of the killing of a top Maoist leader—Central Committee member of CPI (Maoist)—Chalapati and 13 of his comrades in the deep forests of Gariaband, bordering Chhattisgarh and Odisha, on 21 January.
His elation is conspicuous: He said that the Maoist movement in the country is “on its last breath.” These statements reflect the ongoing political, economic, ideological, and cultural conflict between the Maoist movement and the Indian government.
The increasing encounter incidents, the rising toll on the rank and file of the Maoist party, and the ruthless killing of people in every such incident are manifestations of this intense armed warfare in the Central Indian forests.
Regardless of which party holds power in the states, the central government has taken the lead in suppressing the Maoist movement. Earlier, when the Congress government was in power in Chhattisgarh, both the central and state governments jointly conducted aerial attacks on tribal areas. They overwhelmed Adivasi villages using rockets and drones. Armed forces that are supposed to be stationed at the country’s borders reached the Bastar forests of Chhattisgarh.
Using advanced technology to track the movements of revolutionaries, security personnel surrounded and killed thousands of revolutionaries in the last decade. This phase—namely Operation Kagaar (Final Operation)—escalated when the BJP came to power in the state, and the war grew even more sinister.
Governments are expected to function constitutionally and care for the people’s welfare. However, the Indian state, which is hand in glove with rapacious corporate capital, is only serving the political, economic, social, and cultural interests of the corporate class, which holds power over resources and human labour.
Forests, mines, coastlines, public sector enterprises, and people’s assets are handed over to corporations like Adani and Ambani. These governance policies, laws, and military actions only enforce the corporate state’s interests. The state’s fundamental aim is to maintain this system by blending obscurantism with imperialist interests.
The BJP’s agenda is to reinforce corporate exploitation and perpetuate the oppressive violence inherent in Sanatana Dharma. All these policies, cumulatively, while continuing the old inequalities, are also fostering new forms of disparity.
The Indian state is waging war against the Maoist movement. While fascism harbours abhorrence toward all democratic movements, the Maoist movement’s militancy, spirit of sacrifice, broader worldview, and long-term vision of reconstructing human life stand in stark contrast, intensifying its onslaught. The revolutionary movement has demonstrated its ability to put all parliamentary parties into turmoil. The Maoist movement is the only force that the fascists are incapable of keeping a lid on to the full extent. The movement’s strength lies in its worldview and ideology.
The political programme of the Maoists inspires the birth of varied struggles on several issues, fosters diverse streams of resistance, and provides them with a symphony of resistance. In essence, the people’s movements within and beyond the constitutional framework have emerged as unparalleled obstacles to corporatisation. These movements are contributing to rational discourse while opposing obscurantist ideologies.
Under the revolutionary movement’s direct and indirect leadership and influence, people’s struggles are striking at the foundations of fascism. As long as the Maoist movement remains a powerful political and ideological force, the regime will find transforming this country into a corporate India an arduous task.
The BJP is well aware that the Maoist movement has the capability, vision, and initiative to build alternatives in the very spheres of life from which the saffron party seeks to establish a Corporate Raj and Hindu Rashtra. Therefore, the first step is to turn this country into a “Maoist-free India.” Only then can it be transformed into a corporate India. Intense efforts have been underway for these two tasks for the last five to six years.
They claim that by March 2026, they will eradicate the Maoist movement. Intending to safeguard its long-term strategy from the threat of the Maoist movement, the state has pushed the country into a civil war. Once the Maoist movement is eliminated, the state assumes it will be a cakewalk to suppress other forms of resistance.
The state is not only physically eliminating revolutionaries but also constructing an ideological narrative around it to root out the Maoist movement. Amit Shah knows that his lone claim that the Maoist movement is on its “last breath” cannot create the intended impact. This narrative must permeate society as a whole. The weaving of such narratives aims to suppress the real aims of the fascist and reactionary civil war thrust upon the people and to strengthen corporate monopolies.
To divert from its real intentions, the state is creating an intellectual atmosphere to dig into the mistakes of the revolutionary movement. They must encourage all and sundry to speak out that carrying on the revolution is no longer worth pursuing. A narrative of hopelessness must be spread to instil the belief that revolution is no longer viable. A “Maoist-free India” does not merely mean killing all Maoists; it also means shaping a mindset that convinces society that fundamental change is impossible. Liberals, oppressed forces of identity movements, and other revolutionary organisations must reflect on how sinister this idea is.
Can the Maoist Party ever be eradicated as a political, economic, social, and cultural movement? Over the past five and a half decades, the movement has witnessed such repression throughout. It has overcome numerous critical phases. There have been many instances where people thought that the movement was finished when dozens of key leaders and hundreds of second and third-tier leaders were killed. Many have died due to illness or old age. Many others have left halfway.
Amidst all these turbulences, the revolutionary movement has grown to a level where it has become a significant target for the central government. The strategic strength of the Maoist movement lies in the fact that revolution has become an urgent necessity for 140 crore people in the country, leaving aside a handful of exploiters. It is not mere optimism. As long as the fundamental contradictions between the people and the ruling classes persist, the revolutionary movement remains steadfast in rallying the masses and addressing those contradictions. While the fascist Hindutva forces are determined to drag society into the abyss, will a “Maoist-free India” ever be possible? Will Amit Shah’s dream come true?
(Translated from Telugu by Varanasi Subrahmanyam. Paani is a journalist, poet, short-story writer and novelist, famous for his 2017 book ‘Janatana Rajyam’ on the alternative governance of Maoists in Chhattisgarh forests. Views are personal. Edited by Majnu Babu).
