The Hindu Business Line : Land to poor tops Naxalite agenda

LAL SALAM! Naxalite leaders (from left) Mr Ganesh of the People's War; Mr Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna, State Secretary of People's War; Mr Amar, CPI(ML) Janashakti State Secretary; Mr Sudhakar of the People's War, and Mr Riyaz of the Janashakti, at a meet-the-press programme in Hyderabad on Tuesday. - A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , Oct. 12

DISTRIBUTION of land to the poor and severance of ties with the World Bank would be some of the main issues on the agenda of talks with the Andhra Pradesh Government on October 15, according the CPI (ML) (People's War) and CPI (ML) (Janashakti).

"If the talks fail, we will go back to armed struggle," leaders of the two naxal organisations asserted at a meet-the-press programme organised on Tuesday by the AP Union of Working Journalists.

The naxal leaders emphasised that there are alternatives to World Bank. Reiterating PW's opposition to World Bank-led policies, Mr Ramakrishna, Secretary of PW's State Unit, said, "The ruling classes owe lakhs of crores in the form of tax arrears. They siphoned off thousands of crores through corrupt practices. If we can dig out this amount, it will be enough for five years (to avoid loans from WB)," he observed.

He said the evil effects of World Bank polices were being felt all over the world. "Suicide by thousands of farmers in Andhra Pradesh is a case in a point."

Referring to the allegation that investments stopped flowing into the State because of Naxalites, he said his party never opposed development. "We never resisted developmental activities. On the contrary, Governments always tried to put spokes whenever we took up developmental activities," he asserted.

He, however, clarified that his party was opposed to imperialist investments being pumped into the State.

The Naxal leader alleged that India's economy made part of the juggernaut of imperialist policies in the last 20 years.

"It began with Rajiv Gandhi in 1984-85 and reached a peak in 1991 during the regime of Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh. It is not just political and economic policies of the country, people are deprived of the very essence of life," he regretted.

Two of Mr Ramakrishna's party colleagues Mr Sudhakar and Mr Ganesh, and Mr Amar and Mr Riaz of Janashakti, participated in the programme.

The five Naxal leaders, sans weapons, surfaced on Monday from the jungles to attend the Guttikonda Bilam meeting in Guntur district organised by the PW.

Asked whether China could be a model for PW, he said the China model of development, as portrayed by the `bourgeoisie media' and the West, was no indicator of development of the people.

"Naxalism is a solution to problems faced by the country and not a problem," he said.

Making it clear that it would not shun arms, he pointed out that the talks process was only to ask the Government to do things that it ought to do.

"We are asking them to implement what they had said in the Constitution. We are not going to stop our struggle. This (talks) is to provide some respite to the people," he observed.

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