December 28, 2011
By Sandipan Mitra
Let the sons of the revolution die fighting, as they always do. Let them not die being peace-trapped.
One can say that the Maoist nature is characterized not only by its unwavering devotion to the cause of a humanely better future, but also by its credulity of a suicidal kind. A little more than a year back the Maoists had put their faith in Mr. Palaniappan Chidambaram; the outcome was the gruesome murder of Cherukuri Rajkumar Azad by the security forces. Now they put faith in Ms. Mamata Banerjee, the outcome is the grisly murder of Mallojula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishenji, India’s second most wanted Maoist, by the same notorious security forces.
One cannot overlook the fact that Mr. Chidambaram and Ms. Banerjee moved pawns of the same type - peace talks - and the Maoists were checkmated. On the first occasion, they lost Azad, their spokesperson and one of their brilliant theoreticians, and this time their loss is Kishenji, a politburo member with extraordinary organizational skill and military acumen. Ironically enough, although the primary objective of the Maoist rebels is the overthrow of the existing political system by violent means, it is in the prospect of peace talks that they like to be trapped into. Peace, more than war, keeps doing incalculable harm to the Maoist rebellion. It also commands the importance of run-on focus in any discourse related to the resistance and revolutionary movements.
