Patna, Aug. 31: The Maoist Communist Centre has for the first time gone public on an internal bid to split the Naxalite outfit and accused two key leaders of corruption and an attempted coup.
In a 14-page circular published in the latest issue of its mouthpiece, Lal Chingari, the MCC accused “Ba” and “Bh” of siphoning crores, campaigning against central committee members and trying to engineer a split.
The “kendriya committee ka circular”, however, did not clearly identify the rebel leaders. According to outfit sources, Ba is a veteran leader known as Baba and Bh is Bharat, once the Magadh Regional Committee chief and, till recently, a central committee member.
After surviving “the vicious campaign against the central committee”, the Left outfit rushed to enhance unity by closing ranks with rival, the People’s War Group, and fortifying relations with the Communist Party of Peru, the Communist Party of Philippines and the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist).
The internal rift has even forced the MCC to push for a merger with the PWG. But the move, though clearly aimed at isolating the rebels, has failed to end the standoff in the central committee.
Last year’s revolt had its origin in a great debate on ideological moorings that began in the MCC’s Bengal unit in 1999.
At least 12 key leaders sided with Ba and refused to follow the partyline and brought out its own mouthpiece from Calcutta, Janmuktikami, spewing venom against the committee for its “revisionist approach”.
According to the circular, both Ba and Bh openly opposed the central committee’s stand favouring a tilt towards Maoism, clarified in its policy declaration of 1999-2000.
But Bharat said in a statement that “in the name of Maoism, the MCC is virtually ignoring Stalinism”.
The rebels also alleged that the MCC was virtually surrendering its interests by sinking differences with the PWG. They dubbed the outfit’s decision to join the South Asian Confederation of Left Radicals a “mistake”.
It was then that the central committee hit back in 2001, accusing the two rebel leaders of siphoning off funds. Bh was accused of not returning Rs 1.2 crore he had in his account.
Ba was similarly accused of not returning Rs 9.16 lakh and another Rs 2.36 lakh. The amount was collected during the Orissa supercyclone to be sent to the MCC’s units in the state.
The two refused to appear before the central committee even after it drew up a 10-point chargesheet against them. They did not attend the committee meeting between July 14 and 19, 2001.
Bharat had officially said he would be unavailable for the next six months. But he did not appear even after that. He did send a 12-page letter explaining his side of the argument.
The Telegraph had reported how, in these circumstances, a new generation of leaders had taken over the MCC in an organisational shake-up last year.
The two rebel leaders were also suspended, provoking Baba, who had some support in the Bengal unit, to lead a revolt against the Jharkhand Bangal Special Area Committee’s central body. The unit was crippled as a result.
The coup bid is now a year old. But the MCC’s circular to its cadre, platoon members and pressure bodies shows that the revolt is still haunting the central committee leaders.
In their appeal, the committee has urged the cadre to thwart any move by the rebel leaders to split the outfit.
The two-decade-old MCC, still a looming presence in Bihar and Jharkhand, is said to be in the final stages of merger negotiations with the PCC. It may materialise in another six months.
Prakash, a PWG spokesman, said: “It was the move of the (MCC) rebels to spread confusion that took (up) a lot of time. Now we feel there are not many hurdles left for the merger.”
