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Author: Surya Narain Saxena
Publication: Organiser
Date: October 16, 2005
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=100&page=18
Introduction: True to their new thesis, Buddhadeb and his like-minded friends have consigned the books to bookshelves and are learning their new lessons from the 'facts of life' of their mentor Mao Tse Tung.
Recently startling revelations have been made about the 'socialist morality' of the communist parties of various hues-CPI, CPM, Maoists, Naxalites and others-their leaders and cadres. It is all a tale of sleaze, sex and avarice. It consists of everything that the comrades have been condemning ever since their political birth as a result of decadent western-capitalist-bourgeois culture. A common saying is "power corrupts" but I would now, after having read about the escapades of the Marxist-Maoist biradari, deduce that "money or lust for money corrupts more and more deeply". And this is not confined to any particular area, region or state of the country or the neighbourhood. Don Dawood's 'D' company must be marvelling at the communists' 'C' company, which has outdone the former in loot, extortion, bribery, protection tax, drug trafficking, even flesh trade and various other devious ways of amassing wealth and property by the party.
Except the CPI, an apparatchik of Soviet Russia, the CPI(M), CPI(ML) and all Maoist groups including insurgents like the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), NSCN(K), National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), People's Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur and others look to China for inspiration, emulation and regulation. The Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has recently declared that when in power it is not possible to follow the principles (Marxism) and we have to seek truth not from the books (Das Capital) but from actual facts. He probably meant Mao's Red Book, the thoughts of which have no relevance today. True to their new thesis, Buddhadeb and his like-minded friends have consigned the books to bookshelves and are learning their new lessons from the 'facts of life' of their mentor Mao Tse Tung. What are these facts? These were hidden till recently behind the Chinese iron curtain and have come to light largely through books like Mao the Unknown Story by Jung Chang, which has smashed many a myth about Mao and exposed him. His killer instinct took seven million Chinese lives during his lifetime and left far behind his contemporary dictators, who too had no value for human life like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini.
The 1956-61 famine in China is described as a Mao-made one. While some 38 million of his countrymen were dying of hunger, Mao is said to have been enjoying life. Communist sources do admit to Mao's romantic escapades, who married four times and his fourth wife was much younger to him and when her beauty and youth could not hold Mao any more, she was incarcerated and tortured so much that she committed suicide in jail. I have penned these lines about Mao because these have a bearing on what his disciples are doing in the Indian sub-continent. It is no secret that almost all insurgents of the North-East are inspired and influenced by the Mao-Chou led China. So much so that Isaac Muivah and Khaplang, leaders of the two factions of the NSCN, were trained by the Chinese army at Lhasa, Tibet. Not surprisingly the Church and communism are comfortable bedfellows in the North-East insurgency.
Tripura and N-E rebels
What the police, intelligence sources and the surrendered/deserted men and women have disclosed about the money-making means of Tripura insurgents-Baptist Christians plated with communism-fighting for a 'homeland' for original Tripuris is abhorrent and shocking. One wonders how the 'revolutionaries' can stoop so low to earn money. Rebellion needs huge funds, mainly for arms purchase and maintaining cadres. Common source of funding is loot, extortion, abduction for ransom, protection tax and drug trafficking, which has earned this method the title 'narco-insurgency'. These means have worked well in Tripura for almost five decades, thanks to a long spell of CPM government in the State. But in recent years, the Tripura authorities, realising that the situation might go out of control, tightened the noose around the rebels with the result that the cases of kidnapping for ransom coming down from 400 in 1999-2000 to 100 last year. This created a crisis of funds for the NLFT and ATTF rebel groups, who had to devise alternative means for making money. Communists have never bothered about purity of means, end is what matters to them always. Anything that brings money is fair enough for them. Now the Tripura rebels are producing porn films on a commercial scale and selling and supplying tribal girls to massage parlours, bars and brothels in Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar and other Asian countries. Tribal girls, generally in their twenties are either lured or forcibly recruited at gun point to act in blue films or pushed into flesh trade. The sale of porn film DVDs and CDs, which sell like hot cakes in Agartala and neighbouring countries, bring fast and easy money in dollars, with no hassles and risks of anti-insurgency operations of the armed forces. "The NLFT leadership also decided to raise a women's army by recruiting 100 women into rebel ranks to keep the male cadres in good humour," says a Tripura police officer. Two escapee girls from rebels' jungle hideouts have related to police authorities how they and women cadres were sexually abused in jungle camps by their male commanders. This reminds one of the practice of recruiting Korean girls as 'Comfort Women' into the Japanese army. Reports of a similar system in Comrade Prachand's Maoist army in Nepal have also been received. These unfortunate girls are also presented as bribes to Bangladeshi authorities and ISI agents based in that country for allowing the rebels to run their camps and for unhindered trade in flesh and blue films thereby ensuring massive earnings in foreign exchange. A national daily has recently published an article detailing these sleazy and immoral money-making devices of Tripura rebels.
Naga insurgency, known as the mother of insurgency in the North-East, has given rise to some 30 armed rebel groups in the region. The "Shillong Accord" and the ceasefire agreement with the GoI beginning August 1, 1997 proved a godsend for the Naga insurgents to collect enormous amounts of money. This is because our armed forces are bound by ceasefire rules not to shoot or interfere in extortions, kidnappings for ransom, and extraction of taxes from businessmen, road tax from truckers and other levies. Not to be left behind to their counterparts in Tripura, they too are now indulging in sharing the drug smuggling trade, while masquerading as anti-drug and anti-AIDS campaigners. Recently authorities intercepted a letter of a Naga insurgent leader asking a drug don to meet him with Rs 15 lakh for release of a drug consignment impounded by the NSCN(I-M) cadres. Illegal extortions plus the income from drug trafficking has enriched the Naga insurgents-paupers till the ceasefire-so much that they advertise to pay handsome salaries and a lumpsum payment of Rs 5 lakh to fresh recruits. Long live ceasefire, long live drug trade and long live the new communist morality: "Colour of the cat doesn't matter so long as it catches the mice."
Money minting Kerala style
Down south the Marxists in Kerala are no less contaminated with money mindedness and are steadily abandoning Marxism in favour of capitalism and all that it connotes. Unlike their counterparts in West Bengal, who have been in power for almost three decades and they themselves intermittently for half-a-century, they have amassed more wealth and assets than their Bengali comrades.
The day is not far when with the present estimated assets of Rs 4000 crore and a rapid growth engine, the Kerala unit of CPM will be seen sitting with the Ambanis, Tatas and Birlas. And forget not that it is a party representing the poor and have-nots. The CPM with its various students, teachers, government employees, labour, women, head loaders affiliates is the single largest owner of real estate in Kerala. The party although abhors all things old, scrupulously follows the age old maxim,' Jo lagayega so payega' (one who invests must earn) is quick and prudent in investing in the next profit-making venture. Instances are many. From the highly circulated and profit-yielding multi-edition daily Deshabhimani the party launched a multi-crore Malayalam TV channel Kairali. With a powerful media at its disposal, the party is able to control the levers of power in the State and at the Centre in the UPA and also extract heavy advertisements from them, their public undertakings, businessmen and industrialists. Kerala, known as 'God's own country', is atop the destinations of domestic and international tourists. How can the eagle-eyed CPM let go the money in tourism and entertainment industry. Therefore, it is venturing into building hotels, resorts and even a water theme park by acquiring huge chunks of valuable agriculture land in several districts of Kerala through its farmer's wing.
Kerala is notorious for hooch deaths but it hardly inhibits the Marxists from its gainful liaison with the illicit liquor lobby. Proof: A prominent CPM leader and former MLA Surendran is under investigation for his dealings with a notorious hooch lord during the LDF rule. The latter's diaries record monthly payments to several CPM leaders. A dubious deal of Rs 375 crore with a Canadian company with no benefit to the State has drawn the CPM State Secretary and former power minister Pinarayi Vijayan into a high magnitude controversy.
(The writer can be contacted at B-79, Swasthya Vihar, Delhi-110 092.)
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