Where are the Left Parties?

Our attempts to seek the co-operation of the left parties in taking up mass struggles on local issues and rights have met with failure, except for the Naxalites.

NAXALITES

The left group most willing to extend support to the non-violent rights based struggles we took up in the eighties and nineties in Anantapur and Chittoor districts in Andhra Pradesh were the Naxalites. They took up local issues like us but their strategy of struggle based on violence was not acceptable to us. Many of the supporters of the Naxalites accepted that the issues we were taking up were the same as theirs, but our differences lay in the method of struggle.

Most of the Naxalites were young, ill equipped, but full of commitment. All of them who continued in the movement were shot dead in so called encounters. They did not stand a chance against the State.

We were happy when YSR Reddy, agreed to discuss all the issues raised by the Naxalites. The meetings lasted 3 days, but the governments condition that the Naxalites surrender their arms prior to the agreement being accepted was rejected by the Naxal leaders. The leaders returned to the Nalamala forests and took up their arms again. We were very keen, that the Naxalites lay down their arms and organise rights based non violent mass struggles. We were disappointed.

From then on the State went after the leaders and dalams of the Naxals determined to wipe them out. Today we don’t have a Naxalite movement in Andhra any more. The losers are the poor peasants and agricultural labourers whose issues and rights were taken up by them.

My observations are that of an organiser and not that of a critic.

Narinder S. Bedi