Naxalites then and now are unlike species

those who had been witness to the naxalite movement in west bengal nearly four decades ago would perhaps be well advised not to attempt any comparisons between what happened then and the present developments in the jangal mahal of midnapore and bankura districts and also north bengal. there are vital differences which vest the present movement with the potential of being more effective or depending on one's point of view.in the first place, the naxalites of today are not being guided by the romanticism of any one individual. charu mazumdar may have remained the guiding spirit but there is no indicating that either the people's war or the mcc is following his path of action. that path had shunned the basic principles of organisation which led to the movement lapsing into undirected actions by small groups sometimes even clashing with each other. that movement met the inevitable disaster. this time around, the naxalites are working according to a plan. they have set up definite base areas, mainly among tribals, and have painstakingly built up relations with their constituents. to a fair extent they have been able to establish their credentials by not setting aside the people's economic demands (as mazumdar has insisted should be done) but by being partners in the struggle for the realisation of these. it is here that the cpm has been hit hard. being in charge of local self government, the party could have strengthened its bases among the tribals but for obvious reasons chose to concentrate almost solely on the more vocal sections of the population. the tribals of midnapore and bankura have always been denied the statutory minimum wages by their employers but the party of the establishment does not appear to have bothered. the naxalites did not find it difficult to step in. and unlike in the past they did not seek to impose on these people their theory of forcible seizure of power. they are still working on heightening mass consciousness to the need for adopting that theory. this is of course the classical marxist way of going about their job. in this the naxalites of the state have certainly learnt a lot from their comrades in andhra pradesh. the naxalite movement in that state began with the breaking away of nagi reddy and others from the cpm in 1968 (after the burdwan plenum) and since then they have worked assiduously among the masses. the spark that was first noticed at srikakulam may not have turned into a prairie fire but the heat is certainly being felt almost all over the state. while dealing with the naxalites the west bengal government will do well to keep in mind that midnapore and bankura are not isolated but linked with orissa and andhra pradesh in the south and jharkhand and bihar in the north. such a political link was missing when charu mazumdar had fondly hoped that srikakulam would become the yenan of india. and it is this that may well cause severe headaches as right now it is too much to expect different state governments putting up any unified opposition. the present naxalite movement in west bengal is still at a nascent stage. the cpm, however, is worried as its knowledge of history makes it realise that with the economic crisis sure to deepen the future may well see to the movement's growth. it will be interesting to see how the ruling party seeks to meet the challenge. will it depend solely on the administrative machinery or will politics also come into play?