We condemn the killing of dozens of Maoist rebels and the General Secretary of the party.
It was with great fanfare that Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amid Shah announced the death of the CPI (Maoist) Secretary on the 21st of this month. The rebels were killed after a long gun battle with security forces (DRG ) in Chandisgarh district in the dense forests of Abujamar.
Comrade Basavraj (pseudonym of NabalaKeshavaRao) has been the party secretary since 2018.He has been the head of the Central Military Committee of the CPI(M-L) People's War since 2001. Then when the CPI(M-L) People's War merged with the Maoist Communist Center and formed the CPI(Maoist) in 2004 he retained the same position. Since he was a student in Engineering College in 1973 he was actively involved in the struggle for the rights of Indian people, the youth and indigenous people. He quickly went underground and was on a bounty but escaped his persecutors many times till date.
All the time before, the CPI (Maoist) called for ceasefire and peace talks with the government, which was rejected by the government. On the other hand, on the part of the Indian state, armed operations in recent weeks have intensified against the Maoist rebels. With crocodile tears of peace in the media on the one hand and with intensified operations to eliminate the rebels such as Operation Sankalp in the Chhattisgarh and Telangana regions on the other, they are promoting the massacre and killing of rebels. At the same time when the Indian people are starving and experiencing brutal discrimination, the reformists of the CPI (Marxist) who are also the government in the state of Kerala are extending a helping hand to the Modi government and declaring that this year they will eradicate abject poverty in Kerala.
Comrade Basav Raj at the age of 72 years left a great void in the revolutionary movement in India and worldwide. The JPC(m-l) denounces the fascist Indian state and the hunt for Maoist guerrillas. It denounces the murderous operations targeting the people of India and the interests of big capital and imperialism. We stand in solidarity with the Indian revolutionaries who, like Comrade Basav Raj, have dedicated their lives and are fighting for a society free of exploitation, oppression and discrimination, for a free socialist society. We express our deepest condolences to the party and his comrades and we are confident that the Party, the workers and the people of India will continue their just, revolutionary struggle.
22/5/2025
The Political Bureau of the CPG(m-l)
