Left-wing Terrorism

[Texan]

Every time you switch on any English language news channel (except Republic) especially NDTV, you will keep hearing about right wing extremism, intolerance, etc etc.

 

However, very little will you hear about left-wing terrorism that, if anything, is the worst kind of extremism that our country is facing in the form of Naxals.

 

So, my question is - how come nobody faults the CPM, CPI and other Left parties for the activities of the Naxals while at the same time any criminal conduct by any cow vigilant gets directly somehow tied to BJP, Modi, RSS et al? How come all our overwhelming majority of leftist parties (beyond just the Left front) not get admonished when Naxals strike?

 

If the same rules were to be applied to both sides of the spectrum, I would like to see the so called "intellectuals" do dharnas, award wapsi, have long debates about left-wing terrorists and directly blame leftist parties for the same. Somehow, leftist parties get away scot-free. Why is this so?

[Muloghonto]

Good point. Maybe there would be a lot of capital reporting on red terror.

 

[Gollum]

Even CPM has suffered at the hands of Maoists. If I am not wrong, there was a phase around 2010 in Bengal where more than 120 CPM party workers were butchered by the Naxals within 10 months. Radical left org like CPI(Maoist), CPI-ML have been banned by GOI.  Radical left org hate CPI, CPI(Marxist) more than you can imagine and don't associate with them. While a few leftists may have sympathy for Maoists, unless investigative agencies can link them in arms/financial transactions etc to the left wing extremists, they can't be held guilty. Even I have a soft corner for these left wing extremists. They are our brothers and sisters who have been pushed to the extreme after LPG of 1991, there is credible reason for them taking up arms. We must listen to them and help them, many of them are surrendering arms in a few states thanks to govt efforts. It is a problem that is slowly being solved, in a few years I predict they will join the mainstream. 2006-2010 were their peak years. Thanks to effective anti Naxal ops and development thrust in most backward districts in the red corridor, tribals are getting disillusioned by the violent ideology. 

[Texan]

15 hours ago, Gollum said:

Even CPM has suffered at the hands of Maoists. If I am not wrong, there was a phase around 2010 in Bengal where more than 120 CPM party workers were butchered by the Naxals within 10 months. Radical left org like CPI(Maoist), CPI-ML have been banned by GOI.  Radical left org hate CPI, CPI(Marxist) more than you can imagine and don't associate with them. While a few leftists may have sympathy for Maoists, unless investigative agencies can link them in arms/financial transactions etc to the left wing extremists, they can't be held guilty. Even I have a soft corner for these left wing extremists. They are our brothers and sisters who have been pushed to the extreme after LPG of 1991, there is credible reason for them taking up arms. We must listen to them and help them, many of them are surrendering arms in a few states thanks to govt efforts. It is a problem that is slowly being solved, in a few years I predict they will join the mainstream. 2006-2010 were their peak years. Thanks to effective anti Naxal ops and development thrust in most backward districts in the red corridor, tribals are getting disillusioned by the violent ideology. 

The point I am trying to make here is that ultimately Naxals/Maoists are ultra-left on the political spectrum. They may have their problems with the CPM/CPI related to perhaps their belief of the Left Front "not doing enough for the leftist cause", but ultimately both follow the same line of through being anti-capitalist. The only difference here is that one party follows political discourse and uses non-violent means while the other uses extreme violence. That is a big difference - their means are radically different, but the change they want to bring in society is very similar.

 

On the same note, so called cow vigilantes are not verified to be BJP/RSS supporters. Modi has even criticized such people and referred to them as criminals. In fact, some such cow vigilantes have even targeted BJP workers in the past. However, every such incident will be amplified by the media and trumpeted all over to reinforce belief that there is growing intolerance in the country and find its link with Modi and BJP. Nobody really talks about the more extreme, the more dangerous left terrorism that the country has been suffering on since decades. That is the problem I have. If you pretend to be so "neutral", start linking Maoist/Naxal terror activities to parties on the left side of the political spectrum and by left, I don't just mean the Left front, but pretty much a large chunk of our political parties who are leftist.

[Gollum]

3 hours ago, Texan said:

The point I am trying to make here is that ultimately Naxals/Maoists are ultra-left on the political spectrum. They may have their problems with the CPM/CPI related to perhaps their belief of the Left Front "not doing enough for the leftist cause", but ultimately both follow the same line of through being anti-capitalist. The only difference here is that one party follows political discourse and uses non-violent means while the other uses extreme violence. That is a big difference - their means are radically different, but the change they want to bring in society is very similar.

 

On the same note, so called cow vigilantes are not verified to be BJP/RSS supporters. Modi has even criticized such people and referred to them as criminals. In fact, some such cow vigilantes have even targeted BJP workers in the past. However, every such incident will be amplified by the media and trumpeted all over to reinforce belief that there is growing intolerance in the country and find its link with Modi and BJP. Nobody really talks about the more extreme, the more dangerous left terrorism that the country has been suffering on since decades. That is the problem I have. If you pretend to be so "neutral", start linking Maoist/Naxal terror activities to parties on the left side of the political spectrum and by left, I don't just mean the Left front, but pretty much a large chunk of our political parties who are leftist.

Our media is bonkers and our so called intellectuals are 1st grade hypocrites. Most of them hate BJP to the core and will continue trying to link BJP-RSS with every problem in the country. This ecosystem has been nurtured for many decades now and won't go off in a jiffy. May be if BJP rules for 15 years on the trot, narratives may change. I personally find it ridiculous to link every gau hatya to Modi or the LWE to every moderate communist. Most of the radical left units have been banned by GOI, hope these gau raksha killers too get the strictest possible punishment. Meanwhile let the pseudo intellectuals bark, I have never found them useful and I will never waste time listening to their whingeing and crying. 

 

And one more point, I don't think the Maoists and CPM have much in common. Whilst they both are anti capitalist, Maoists don't believe in multi party democracy. They want to overthrow the state and bring in one party communist rule, just like their Chinese masters their idea of democracy is a farce. The likes of Yechury and Karat, no matter how irritating they are, at least believe in our present Constitution and are committed democrats. CPM and other moderate leftists also believe in free speech and FOE(eg WB and recent Kerala left govts). If Maosits are to run the country they will annihilate FOE and free speech, just like China or Venezuela.