EVERY district of West Bengal witnessed rousing protests against the recent dastardly murder of three CPI(M) workers by Maoist brigands. The protest took the form of processions, meetings, rallies, and conventions.  

In the meantime, the Jharkhandis, close associates of the Maoists, murdered a CPI(M) worker at Binpur near Jhargram in west Midnapore.

BRUTAL KILLINGS

One will note that, recently, Maoist assassins had brutally gunned to death three CPI(M) workers in the districts of Bankura and Purulia. Politically bankrupt and isolated from the masses, the Maoists in Bengal, as elsewhere in the country, are increasingly taking recourse to wanton violence. It was against these murders that the CPI(M) state secretary Anil Biswas had, while severely condemning the killings, called for the observance of a statewide protest day on July 12. 

The chief target of extremist desperados, as always, remains the CPI(M).  These criminals are not able to withstand the manner the CPI(M) has been organising ever bigger democratic movements, which have isolated the extremists further from the masses. Despite their political pretensions, the Maoist brigands are never loathe to join hands with the forces of right reaction to attack the workers of the CPI(M) and other Left parties. 

The facts of the case are as below. On July 9 evening, Comrade Raghunath Murmu, a member of the CPI(M)’s Ranibandh zonal committee in Bankura district, was coming out of a dispensary in Majhgheria village in Ranibandh when the killers struck, accosted him and sprayed bullets that killed him instantly. The attackers also shot down Comrade Bablu Mudi, a CPI(M) worker who accompanied Comrade Raghunath.

The dastardly villains left behind a bag containing a time-released bomb, which burst as the police rushed in. In the resultant explosion the officer-in-charge of the Ranibandh police station was killed on the spot, and several other police personnel were left injured and bleeding.

Comrade Raghunath had long been a target of the PWG and MCC. The former outfit had abducted him back in 2003 with the clear purpose of killing him, but he had somehow escaped. This time, Comrade Raghunath died before help could arrive. One recalls that in 2001, the PWG had killed Comrade Rampada Majhi, the secretary of the CPI(M)’s Rudhra local committee.

Later in night on the same day, a dozen odd miscreants, armed and shouting slogans, barged into the house of Comrade Mahendra Mahato, member of the CPI(M)’s Bandowan zonal committee in Purulia district, and shot him dead before making good their escape into the adjoining forest. 

In his statement, Anil Biswas had noted how the Maoist-PWG criminals had, over the recent period of time, become isolated from the mass of the people due to the pro-people, especially pro-poor developmental work undertaken with popular participation by the Bengal Left Front government.

Biswas then pointed out that the CPI(M) was their a target because it had led from the front the task of building up a democratic movement among the people. Over the past two years, the extremists had killed no less than 12 CPI(M) workers, apart from 17 police personnel. 

In the circumstances, stated Biswas, CPI(M) workers must further strengthen the democratic movement and assist in developmental works. Protests against the dastardly killings must echo across the state, he urged.

The biggest protests against these killings were organised in the various urban and rural areas of West Midnapore district where the CPI(M) held large rallies with the people’s massive participation. 

ASSASSINS’ DESPERATION

The corporate media, self-confessed champions of the Maoists and indeed of every element opposed to the CPI(M) and Left Front, have now started to float stories, ‘quoting’ sources that they do not name, about the reasons the Maoists struck at the CPI(M).

Nailing these lies in a comprehensive manner, the CPI(M) has pointed clearly to the development work taking place in those areas of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura where the Maoist murdering gangs are getting seriously alienated from the people.

The two areas where Maoists recently struck are situated close to the state of Jharkhand and are topographically hostile as the entire stretch is covered with hillocks, forest patches, scrubs and bushes. As the CPI(M) points out, however, there is no dearth of potable water in these remote areas. Solar energy has a fair spread over the localities. Self-help groups have developed, concentrating on the fabrication of ropes made of grass, collection of kendu leaves (from which the ubiquitous bidi is produced), and environment friendly utilisation of forest resources.  

Food for work programmes have produced big tanks and water bodies. The kisans have irrigation facilities. Agricultural production, especially of boro rice, is well on the way of a sizeable increase. An enhancement of wages for has safeguarded the interests of agricultural labourers, here as elsewhere in Bengal.

Deprived of support, frustrated at the pace of the developmental work and panic-struck at the gradual removal of poverty in rural Bengal over the past two and a half decades, the Maoists who vainly hope to thrive on rural poverty as they do elsewhere in India, think the way to survive is terrorism. 

Hence the targeting by the Maoists and their lackeys of such CPI(M) workers as are engaged in organisation of democratic movements while assisting the Bengal Left Front government’s developmental work.

Elsewhere, the Left Front government has announced help for the family of the police officer slain at Ranibandh by the Maoists.