Totalitarianism by any name is still…

Tehelka published a an interview that was taken with a Naxal commander from the forests of Bijapur…

It makes for chilling reading…

With anyone following the developments in Pakistan, the words spoken by the ‘commander’ seem to have a chilling reflection of the words spoken by the Taliban across the border – the same self-serving statements about representing the people and of a fight against a corrupt and immoral system without any scope of looking within themselves; the same confidence of final victory no matter what the cost; no scope of negotiation or compromise; and the constant harping on the ‘people’, as if the ‘people’ are one single homogenous constituent.

What was most fascinating was a lack of understanding of how an economy operates best. The solution for unemployment is not always local self-sufficiency. On the contrary. Either this is deliberate or stems from a lack of awareness, both of which makes them very dangerous…

Also the fact that democracy has no place in their ideology places makes them ideologically and practically Luddites. They still seem to believe in the ‘Dictatorship of the proletariat’. The collapse of communist police states and the transformation of China seems to have passed them by.

Reading through the interview, one gets the feeling that the Naxalite movement has developed a vested interest in keeping people poor and in distress so that the state of constant warfare remains – permanent power will continue to flow through their barrel.

Very Orwellian…but who said that Orwell did not draw from the world as he saw it…

What makes these thoughts of Naxalites very important is that these guerrillas control almost 20% of the country and are spreading their networks across India. For the poor, its a seductive ideology since they are empowered and their anger can be channelled through a gun. Its naturally a socio-economic problem that has been neglected by the political and economic elites all these years.

But as things stand now, even if the government wants to make changes, the Naxals will not allow them. The poor must remain poor in order for them to remain relevant.

Caught in the cross-fire as usual again are the very people these rebels are claiming to fight for. And all they get at the end of the day is a gun and some meaningless slogans…

 

 

 

But one thing is for certain – whether its a religious struggle or a  class struggle, the roads lead to the same thing – dreary totalitarianism, something that our comrade forgot.

 

END OF POST