Sanyal: Changing stand

Siliguri, Feb. 26: After 58 years in politics, Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal today said the path of armed struggle followed by him and his comrades was incorrect.

Sanyal was speaking after the two-day “first state conference” of the CPI(M-L) that ended here yesterday.

“Today, when we re-evaluate the Naxalbari movement that had started in the region in the sixties, we don’t find it pertinent,” he said. “Such an action, which amounts to homicide, that, too, without public support, is illogical.”

When asked why they called the meeting the “first state conference” though the party was set up in 1969, Sanyal said: “We have seen the rise of the CPI(M-L) and the rifts and differences that came in, splitting the party into several factions. Now, we have decided to refurbish the party for a movement, which will follow a new ideology. It will be a movement for the people, not alienate them. So, we called the convention the ‘first’ conference.”

The septuagenarian, however, condemned the save-farmland movement launched by the Trinamul Congress and Jamait Ulema-i-Hind, calling it a “gimmick”. “It would be wrong to think that the leaders of these parties are sympathetic towards distressed farmers. Their only intention is to increase their support base and win the elections,” Sanyal said.

The Naxalite said his party workers will visit Nandigram and Singur on February 28 and March 1. “We have worked out a strategy to launch a fresh movement in these areas to help the affected people. We want to warn the state government that if it attempts to deter us by using police and government machinery, we will have no other option but to use arms to defend ourselves,” he said.