South Asia Feb 12, 2005 India, as seen by Maoists By B Raman As Nepal goes through a serious political crisis in the wake of the coup staged on February 1 by King Gyanendra with the backing of the Royal Nepal Army (RNA), which is increasingly frustrated over its continuing failure in its counter-insurgency operations against the country's Maoists, it is necessary to see how the Nepalese Maoists view India so that one has some idea of the likely implications for India if the Maoists manage to capture power in Kathmandu. It is also important to monitor the reactions of the Maoists of India to India's policy in Nepal. I have in the past drawn attention to the analysis of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN - Maoist) of what it describes as its three-phase armed struggle - the first against the Nepal police, the second against the RNA and the third and last against the Indian army. It has not revised this analysis. On the contrary, its perception of India has become even more negative and hostile than it was two or three years ago. Among the reasons for this are the perceived proximity of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government to King Gyanendra, which, in its view, strengthened his autocratic tendencies and the alleged collusion between India and the US in assisting the RNA in its counter-insurgency campaign against the Maoists. The Maoists of Nepal view India as a stooge of the US and as a lackey of US-led global capitalism. Their aggravated feelings of hostility toward India were reflected during a secret plenum of the central committee of the CPN-Maoist held somewhere in Nepal in August last year. They accused India of trying to turn Nepal into what they described as another vassal of India similar to Bhutan. This is what the Maoist leaders of Nepal said of India at the plenum: Backed by US imperialism, Indian expansionism is directly intervening against the great People's War. This has been further demonstrated by the arrests of several responsible comrades including comrade Kiran, the veteran member of the standing committee of our party, in different cities of India recently. Following the expansionist doctrine of [former Indian premier Jawaharlal] Nehru, that regards the Himalayan ranges as its border, the Indian ruling class is advancing with vicious intrigue and conspiracy with the strategy of either Bhutanizing or Sickimmizing Nepal. The Indian monopoly capitalist rulers, who have always backed destabilization and anarchy in Nepal, have now been openly threatening Nepal with their ill intention of bringing Nepal under their control through military intervention and by conducting massacres of the patriotic and self-respecting Nepalese people in the name of support to the so-called war against terrorism. Indian expansionism is the main external obstacle in the way of the creation of a conducive environment to find a forward-looking political solution through peaceful negotiations. The chieftains of the old state of Nepal, indulging in a day dream of lengthening the life of the reactionary state, have been committing a heinous crime by mocking over the independent existence and self-respect of the Nepalese people and by kneeling down in front of Indian expansionism. All self-respecting and patriotic Nepalese people should stand united against the national capitulationism of the old state, Indian expansionist intervention and the danger of imminent military attacks. They should concentrate against the national capitulation and Indian intervention in all our ideological, political and military fields. The independence of Nepal and the Nepalese people can be preserved by turning the whole country into a war front, by militarizing all people, and by raising the war strategy to a new height against military interventions of imperialism and expansionism. In the war against national capitulation and expansionist interventions, there will be support and sympathy not only of the broad patriotic Nepalese people (which also includes the patriotic members of the so-called Royal Nepal Army of the old state), but there will also be support and sympathy from the justice-loving Indian masses as well as the masses of the world over. How do the Indian Maoists view the role of India in Nepal? This is what the Communist Party of India (Maoist) had to say in December, 2004: In the light of the growing civil war in the country [India], the new UPA [United Progressive Alliance government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh] government in India has been exhibiting its expansionist fangs against the people of Nepal right from the day it came to power. Treading the earlier NDA [the National Democratic Alliance Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee] path, it has forged close links with the genocidal King Gyanendra, seeking to prop it up in every way possible. This despot has arrived on a high profile state visit to India to conspire for greater Indian assistance to crush the ongoing people's war in Nepal. [My comment: This is not correct. The king postponed the visit at the last minute in December, 2004, due to the death of Narasimha Rao, former Indian prime minister] Of all the political formations in the country, it is the Communist Party of India (Maoist), as the vanguard of the Indian oppressed masses, that has strongly condemned these interventionist policies of the Indian rulers. The main purpose of the king's visit is to ensure support from the bordering states of India and to request India to deploy its armed forces on the border and to beef up the hundreds of outposts, which have emerged in the recent past to monitor the CPN-Maoist activity. To prepare the ground for direct Indian military intervention, the Indian government as a first step beefed up its border vigil to ensure a safe passage for its armed forces when they will enter Nepal to fight along with the RNA against the Maoists. In the first week of December, Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee strategically declared that India will render all assistance to the Royal Nepal Army, like supplying all types of military equipment, training RNA personnel and sealing the border. It is not difficult to understand the significance of this statement. The Indian ruling classes are going to wage an undeclared and deceitful war against the Nepalese people and the People's Liberation Army under the leadership of the CPN-Maoist. Since the last few years, the Nepalese people have been waging a war against the monarchy under the leadership of the Maoists with the aim of establishing a new democratic society. Imperialists and the entire reactionaries are fiercely opposing this revolutionary war of Nepal. The CPM [Communist Party-Marxists, the ruling party in West Bengal], one of the main props of the UPA government at the center [Delhi], kept mum on the decision of the government and the visit of the king. In West Bengal, where it is in power, it is not sparing any chance to play its role in crushing the revolution in Nepal in the name of opposing 'terrorism'. Its police forces have arrested many leaders and activists of the CPN-Maoist, including Comrade Mohan Baidya, one of the topmost leaders, in West Bengal. On the one hand, the king is pressing the UPA government to give full assistance and blessing to his operations against Nepal's Maoist revolutionaries; on the other hand, he is closely moving with the Sangh Parivar, particularly the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Under some pretext or the other, the king is maintaining close links with the communal fascists who are ideologically staunch opponents of communism in order to get their support against the Maoists in Nepal and India. Our CC(P) [Central Committee Plenum] will mobilize the Indian people in solidarity with the great revolutionary struggle of the Nepal people against the unjust deeds of the Indian government and the king of Nepal. We are confident that if the Indian government dares to send its mercenary army for suppressing the revolution in Nepal, it will have to incur the same shameful defeat as it had received in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. The CC(P) calls upon all the revolutionary and democratic people of the Indian sub-continent to rise in a united struggle against the expansionist Indian ruling classes and their mercenary army. The CC(P) calls upon all the revolutionary, democratic, justice and peace-loving people of India to forcefully oppose the Indian government's interference in the internal affairs of Nepal. The CC(P) calls upon the jawans of the Indian army, who hail from the toiling classes, not to involve themselves in killing their class brethren by participating in the unjust military campaign of the Indian government. We call upon the people of South Asia, as well as the entire world people to rise against and resist the India government's interference in the internal affairs of Nepal for protecting the medieval rule of king Gyanendra whose hands are soaked with the blood of thousands of Nepalese people. B Raman is additional secretary (retired), cabinet secretariat, government of India, and, presently, director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and distinguished fellow and convener, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter. Email: corde@vsnl.com