Interview with Comrade Ganapathi

Peoples March magazine, 2 August 2019 .

Comrade Ganapathi retired from the responsibilities of the General Secretary of the CPI (Maoist) and Comrade Basavaraj was elected as the General Secretery. On this occasion People’s March interviewed Comrade Ganapathi early this year. This is the full text of the interview – Editorial Board

People’s March: What are the reasons for your retirement from the responsibilities of General Secretary? 

Com Ganapathi: The reason for my retirement from the responsibilities of General Secretary of our Party is my increasing ill-health and age. The Central Committee of our Party faced very severe losses due to the ceaseless counter-revolutionary offensive.

Our Party is witnessing new challenges and new opportunities. In such conditions I proposed to the CC to elect another comrade as the GS so as to provide active, efficient leadership to our Party from the highest position. In view of the protracted, rich experiences of the leadership committees of our Party and as the interests of the Party and Revolution are the most important for me I proposed to the CC. The Fifth meeting of the CC thoroughly, deeply discussed and approved it and unanimously elected Comrade Namballa Keshavarao as the new GS. On this occasion I convey my hearty revolutionary greetings to Comrade Namballa Keshavarao, the new GS of our Party. I believe that in his leadership our Central Committee shall develop into a stronger, collective and centralized leadership and provide efficient leadership to the Indian Revolutionary movement. As a veteran I shall work to the best of my strength until the end for the development of our Party and to advance the Indian Revolution. Just as the Protracted People’s War going on in a jig-jag manner, new generations taking over the central leadership of the respective Communist Parties for the past fifty years in several countries of the world, there are similar changes in the revolution of our country and in our Party. This shows the character of the present times in the dynamics of the World Socialist Revolution. Leadership changes, new generations come forth but the World Socialist Revolution and the Indian New Democratic Revolution as a part of it shall continue in the protracted path until the final success. People are the makers of history. The future belongs to the new generations!

PM: The Revolutionary movement of our country has been sliding for the past seven to eight years. What are the reasons? What are your efforts to overcome this situation?

 Com. GP: The intensity of the counterrevolutionary offensive and our subjective mistakes and weaknesses are the main reasons for the weakening of the Indian Revolutionary movement for the past eight years. Coming to the enemy offensive the central and the state governments are taking it up in the name of ‘Operation Green Hunt’ and ‘SAMADHAN’. They deployed five and a half lakhs of police and Paramilitary forces in the areas of the revolutionary movement and widened carpet security. As a result the mass base became weak. The area of the movement shrank. We could not extend the class struggle to the vast plains, the rural and the urban areas. Coming to our subjective mistakes and weaknesses, we considerably lost leadership cadres and subjective forces due to the enemy offensive. We are short in understanding the interrelation of the central task and the other immediate tasks and in working accordingly. The Party could not formulate new program and tactics of class struggle depending on social investigation. There were shortcomings in the rectification campaign that the Party took up to rectify the non proletarian tendencies in the party and so could not achieve the expected results. Due to all these there were a lot of limitations in building movements in the central and the state level. In order to overcome this situation and to advance the movement in the country without further setback, our Party presently took up the main task of developing People’s War by formulating tactics according to the changes in the international and domestic conditions, in the relations of production and in the social conditions. For this purpose social investigation is taken up to study the changes in the mode of production and social relations due to LPG policies being implemented since 1991 is and to adopt corresponding tactics. We are working for advancing the People’s War through – theoretical, political, organisational and military consolidation of the Party, PLGA and the United Front; the protection of the leadership, cadres and PLGA forces; persistent guerrilla war; reorganizing the affected Mass Organisations and strengthening the mass base; consolidating the people mobilizing in the struggles to solve people’s problems in class and sectional organisations; enlightening the organisations with the politics of Armed Agrarian Revolutionary class struggles against imperialism, feudalism and comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie; maintaining friendly forces starting from the ground level to the central level and the neutral sections on the side of the revolutionary movement; isolating the main enemy and utilizing various contradictions so as to help for the advancement of the movement; and through re consolidating and expanding the areas of the movement. 

PM: Brahmanic Hindu fascism reached its zenith and became a great danger to the oppressed people of the country. What is the opinion of the Party about facing it? 

Com. GP: Fascism is internationally an utmost reactionary, counter-revolutionary, theoretical and political movement. The ruling classes unleash fascism whenever economic and political crisis intensifies and whenever there is a danger of people’s movements and revolutionary movements. Hindu fascism in our country came forth in this international background. Since Modi came to power these fascist forces are putting the traditional forces among the people and a section among the urban middle class and lumpen proletariat in a frenzy. They utilize their majority in the Parliament and cruelly quashing the people’s movements through their utmost dictatorial rule. They even attack the parliamentary opposition parties and try in many ways to hegemonize them. They are aggressively and harshly unleashing theoretical, economic, political and cultural policies. Due to the aggressive implementation of fascist policies opposition, protest and movements of the people are on the rise and since there is an increasing situation of these to turn into a revolutionary crisis, in a bid to divert it, the US imperialists and the ruling classes of the country brought the die hard Modi clique of the RSS-BJP to power. These classes are unleashing Brahmanic Hindu fascism in the country. This is the main difference between the Modi government and the governments of the earlier other parties. This took the Brahmanic Hindu fascist offensive to a severe level in the country. Since the Modi clique seized power in the centre it is working with the agenda to make the country into a ‘Hindu raj’. With the slogan of ‘Minimum government-Maximum rule’ the Modi clique took all the government powers into its hands, into the hands of the RSS and into those of its reliable agents. It aggressively brought forth Hindutwa and fake nationalism. It is not allowing even nominal democracy and federalism. It made the judiciary fascistic. This was revealed when four judges of the Supreme Court spoke out that ‘democracy’ was in danger. The Modi clique is unleashing an emergency like situation. Coming to how our Party faces Brahmanic Hindu fascism, the religious minorities, Dalits and the people of the oppressed nationalities are fighting against it. These struggles are going on separately and are gradually picking up. Our utmost important political task is to target the politics of the Brahmanic Hindu fascist exploitation and suppression of the people; to mobilize the whole oppressed people; to take up constant agitation and propaganda programs against Brahmanic Hindu fascism through our class organisations and other organisations; and to develop a militant movement through building a broad United Front to defeat those politics. It is the responsibility of our Party to provide proper direction and proper leadership to those movements and bring them into the path of revolution. We must have the initiative to mobilize Dalit people, religious minorities, especially the Muslim people, the secular and the democratic people. We have to take up ideological, cultural and practical efforts to go and work deep among the rural and urban middle class and the lumpen proletariat to destroy the social basis of the Hindu fascist forces in these classes. We must work together with all those who come forth in this struggle, however vacillating friends they might be. For this purpose we have to absolutely explore the strength of the people. We have to take up various tactics and actively and militantly mobilize the people in all legal-illegal, open-secret struggles and only thus we can defeat the danger of Brahmanic Hindu fascism. However the collective effort of various organisations, associations and forums shall be vital. These must form into a broad United Front and take up the issue. Only then we can contain and defeat Brahmanic Hindu fascism. Our Party feels that this effort shall work as the basis for a countrywide strong United Front against Brahmanic Hindu fascism.

 PM: How do you fight back the ‘SAMADHAN’ strategic offensive that the Modi government formulated to totally eliminate the Maoist movement in India by 2022? 

Com. GP: The present ‘SAMADHAN’ offensive too is a strategic offensive like the counterrevolutionary Operation Green Hunt (OGH) that was unleashed from 2009 to 2017. The ‘SAMADHAN’ strategic fascist offensive was intended for building ‘Nava Bharath’ that the Modi clique speaks. Whatever it boasts about the objectives of building ‘Nava Bharath’ that it wishes to complete by 2022, its actual objectives are – to aggressively implement neo-liberal policies in the country and intensify the exploitation and oppression of the imperialists, comprador bureaucratic bourgeois and big landlords; to impose Brahmanism on all the people of the country and put an iron heel on the people’s resistance to it; to stabilize Brahmanic caste order and hegemony of higher castes in the country; to suppress the Kashmir and the North East Nationality Liberation struggles fighting for freedom against the conspiracies of ‘Akhand Bharath’ that is against the Dalit and other oppressed castes, religious minorities and transforms the country into a prison of nationalities; to eliminate the Maoist party that is taking up Armed struggle against the exploitation, oppression and repression; and to establish ‘Brahmanic Hindu fascist rule’. The Indian Comprador bureaucratic ruling classes took the lives of 195 Maoist revolutionaries, 100 revolutionary people, hundreds of Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis and more than 300 Kashmiri fighters in the present ‘SAMADHAN’ offensive. As a part of the ‘SAMADHAN’ strategy the ruling classes deployed Para-military, Commando and Special police forces in big numbers in the areas of the revolutionary movement and are strengthening carpet security with the objective of absolute elimination of the revolutionary movement. They strengthen and expand intelligence system to intensify counter-guerilla operations in the guerilla bases, strategic areas and in areas where the movement spread newly. They implement reforms among the increasing middle class sections in the adivasi areas where the movement is strong and divert them from the revolutionary movement. They intensify attacks on social activists in the name of urban Maoists. They stop funds for our Party. Our Party is making efforts to mold the Party, PLGA, RPC and the revolutionary Mass Organisations on par with the severe change in the enemy offensive, with the aim to defeat this cruel, multipronged ‘SAMADHAN’ offensive that is in fact war against the people. It is mobilizing the broad people in the anti-imperialist, antifeudal class struggle and is enhancing its mass base. It is training new leadership forces. It is bolshevizing and rectifying the alien class tendencies among the leadership forces. It is expanding-intensifying the People’s War-Guerrilla War and is resisting the ‘SAMADHAN’ offensive. In this process it is developing its strength for political mobilization and for organization and struggle. Our Party opines that we can defeat the SAMADHAN offensive only through mobilizing the worker, peasant and other oppressed classes and oppressed social communities in broad people’s struggles, by integrating with the struggles of the oppressed nationalities for their liberation, by coordinating these struggles with the Protracted People’s War and by united fight with the common enemy. 

PM: The International Communist Movement is weak! How would the movement advance? 

Com. GP: Yes! The International Communist Movement is weak. There are objective and subjective reasons. An objective situation is maturing for another revolutionary spate in the world. Along with it a favorable situation is developing for strengthening the proletarian revolutionary subjective force. In view of this the international proletariat and the revolutionary Communist parties must get ready. The monopoly capitalists and their governments of the imperialist system are developing utmost modern technology, bringing great growth in production, brought utmost destructive development in the military sector and great changes in administration, social, cultural and all such sectors. They and their compradors brought changes in neocolonies and semi-colonies. All these are nothing but to exploit the crores of broad toiling people and to eat them away in the interests of the minority capitalists and their compradors. They violate the freedom of the people and suppress their struggles. The World Wars, aggression wars, interventionist policies and fascism are to persistently destroy the humankind and to push them into unrest and insecurity and unleash their hegemony. The international proletariat or the Communist Parties must understand without doubt that the so-called development that they brought and are bringing cannot change the character of the wage slavery system or that of the semi-colonial, semi-feudal system; they must profoundly realize that Socialism is the actual alternative to the capitalist-imperialist system and the neo-colonial/semi-colonial, semi-feudal system. It is necessary to make a concrete study of the social, economic, political and cultural conditions in the light of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in every country and adopt appropriate political line, revolutionary line and revolutionary strategy and tactics. For this purpose we have to study the history of the respective countries, especially the history of proletarian revolution and the history of international proletariat. It is necessary to study not only the great victories of the international proletariat but also its defeats and mistakes. We must not be enthused with victories and depressed with defeats. We must learn from mistakes and demonstrate proletarian courage to achieve successes. The imperialists and reactionaries are always afraid of people’s struggles and revolutions. The reactionaries learn from their earlier defeats and take up theoretical, political, military and cultural offensive to see that the scattered proletariat revolutionary forces do not rise once again and try to drown the rising revolutions in blood. It is the historic responsibility of the proletariat and revolutionary communist parties to prepare and dare to fight back this offensive. The international proletariat and the revolutionary communist parties must remember the historic experience that the path is jig-jag and work to fulfill their historic responsibility. The proletariat must give utmost importance to self-dependence. They have to adopt appropriate tactics with a strategic view to unite and integrate with the people, to gain friendly forces, to isolate the enemies, especially the main enemy and achieve success. We must utilize the contradictions between the enemies with the objective to achieve success in revolution but must never rely or depend on them. In each and every revolution of the world all the enemies united to attack it but never helped the revolution. We must make temporary compromises and agreements with the enemies with this understanding. We must constantly pay attention to the strategy and tactics. There will be changes in the social conditions, in the balance of forces between the forces in conflict due to class contradictions and in the ebbs and flows of the revolutionary movements. So they must be studied in time and periodically. The revolutionary leadership must adopt and improve tactics with a strategic view and foresight and work. We must take care that we never distance from the people. We must deepen and expand mass base. We must pay importance to the political mobilization of the proletariat, peasantry and the broad oppressed people. Especially we must work with special attention to mobilize new generations, the youth into revolution, in the theoretical, political, organizational, education, social, cultural, sports and media sectors. We must give special importance to work in ideological sphere, work in the cultural sphere, among the students and intellectuals and in the media. We must unite with all the proletarian revolutionary struggles. We must support all the democratic and nationality liberation struggles against the imperialists, landlords and comprador bureaucratic capitalists. We must relentlessly make efforts to integrate with the proletarian, revolutionary communist parties, various oppressed classes, oppressed social communities and the people of oppressed nationalities of all the countries, to extend support to them and to be organized. In the country/countries where revolution was a success, we must take up continuous revolution in the superstructure to successfully take up Socialist construction in the dictatorship of the proletariat. We must understand that this proletarian internationalism is a precondition for the success and existence of revolution in every country. We must never divorce from the fundamental principles of MLM. We must creatively apply them to revolutionary conditions. We must keep politics in command in all aspects and take up class struggle as the vital link. We must always follow class line and mass line. We must learn from practice. We must sincerely take up criticism-self-criticism and follow the method of rectifying mistakes, of strengthening the party and of learning from practice. We must oppose all kinds of revisionism. We must fight against all kinds of bourgeois ideological trends. We must adopt appropriate tactics to protect and develop subjective strength and to achieve new victories. Only thus, depending on the unique revolutionary objective condition of various countries, with the unique strength of the revolutionary subjective forces and efficient leadership revolutionary movements of many levels shall rise and advance all over the world. Firstly when the revolutionary leadership can efficiently lead in a weak link and the domestic and international situation is favorable, revolution/ revolutions achieve success. Revolutions are not achieved basing on subjective wishes. Only thus the International Communist Movement shall overcome the present situation and advance. Thus it abolishes capitalism, semi-colonial, semi-feudal policy, labor exploitation, neo-liberal policies, wage slavery and all kinds of social oppressions through the utmost complex, difficult revolutions in human history involving bloodshed, courage, sacrifices and the great wonders of crores of oppressed people and realizes the great ideal of Socialism-Communism. PM: It is fifty years since the beginning of Naxalbari movement. What is your assessment of the success of Indian Revolution? Com. GP: Yes! Fifty years passed since the Naxalbari movement began. But the Indian New Democratic Revolution did not succeed. Moreover our CC assessed that the Indian Revolutionary Movement is facing a difficult situation. Counterrevolution is making the most intense offensive to eliminate the mere existence of revolution. Our country is one of the strongest bastions of international reaction. If this bastion comes into the hands of the people the foundation of the imperialists and reactionaries starts shaking. So the offensive on the revolution in our country is not that of the Indian reactionary ruling classes. It is being taken up by all the imperialists including the US imperialists that are the center for world reaction. It is because our country is always favorable to the development of social revolution due to its semi-colonial, semi-feudal character. Moreover the present revolution is related to our country but the character of this revolution is international. Its origins, the impacts and consequences are international. The reactionaries of the country and all over the world are clearly aware of this. We must understand the ebbs and flows of Indian Revolution in the background of the International Communist Movement. There is no Socialist revolutionary camp or a revolutionary base in the world and so our Party and every Maoist party must provide efficient leadership to make their revolutions successful to establish such a base and such a camp. We must work efficiently with the objective of fulfilling this task with our bit of responsibility as the vanguard detachment of the international proletariat. In this view too our Party must make much more serious effort to advance in order to overcome the present difficult situation of the movement and to learn from the experiences of not only the revolution in our country but also the International Communist Movement. We must sincerely work to rectify our mistakes and overcome weaknesses; we must make changes in our tactics and tasks depending on the changes in social conditions and in revolutionary war and in this view we have to concentrate on training our Party, PLGA and people theoretically, politically and organizationally; we have to pay special importance to develop mass base and subjective forces and to the political mobilization of the people; we have to intensify and expand class struggle and guerilla war in view of the concrete socio-geographical situation of the various areas of movement in the country and our strength and the level of movement in those areas. On this occasion I wish to make one thing clear. Though Indian New Democratic Revolution did not succeed even after fifty years of Naxalbari movement, we must remember that the rich experiences our revolution handed over during this period, the subjective strength we developed, the mass base, the revolutionary traditions that we established, its great impact on the society and the great experiences the International Communist Movement handed over during this time developed our theoretical, strategic and tactical understanding necessary for advancing the Indian Revolution. In the present situation where Protracted People’s War is going on in a jig-jag manner there are severe challenges and also great opportunities. I believe that our Party can overcome the present difficult situation and successfully advance only if the whole party works in a united, strong, courageous and efficient manner. Our Party took up the red flag of invincible Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and is making People’s War and I strongly believe that it will step forward towards achieving the final success.

 PM: What message do you wish to give to the ranks of our Party, revolutionary sympathizers and the broad oppressed people?

 Com. GP: I hope and profoundly believe that the cadres and members of all levels in our Party and revolutionary sympathizers shall work with a foresight and strong will to develop our Party, People’s Army and People’s political power as an invincible force in the process of revolution and fulfill the ideals of thousands and lakhs of martyrs to make success the Indian New Democratic Revolution as the inheritors of the Indian Communist movement of the past one hundred years and the International Proletariat Movement for the past 170 years for which – they have to mold and deepen their world outlook with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism for achieving Socialism-Communism in the world for the success of World Socialist Revolution; they have to live a simple life and do hard work, make tireless study, follow daring style of struggle; they have to work with the three guidelines for the great style of work that Mao taught; they have to develop the consciousness to fight with strong will to achieve the aim bearing the hardships and losses in the process of Protracted People’s War; they have to develop the foresight and efficiency to escape the unseen dangers in the process of revolution; they have to integrate with the people in an extremely close manner; they have to pay attention towards the strategy and tactics to unite all the friends and isolate the main foe and all the foes one by one and gain hold in efficiently utilizing these tactics; they have to pay attention to study the strategy and tactics of the People’s War according to the modern technological warfare and provide efficient leadership to People’s War; they must take up unrelenting criticism-self-criticism and oppose the left and right opportunist trends not only in the Party but also all kinds of bourgeois ideological trends that come forth in the society; 2 they have to enlighten and unite the people; they have to keep politics in command in every aspect and take class struggle as the vital link; they must not become selfish, not be bureaucratic, should not be dominating, should not fall in individualism and careerism, should not crave for prestige; they must fight against revisionism and work as selfless and reliable servants of the people until the end; they have to develop communist culture in the society. This is what the people of India and all over the world wish from our Party. This is the message I give to the cadres and members of all levels in our Party and sympathizers!

Source:  BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET