The other ultra-leftist,taking on the Maoist

This reporter recently travelled through the region where the TSPC has wrested control,and met its cadres in forest camps. They remain like their former comrades in some ways and are different in other aspects. They follow the same Maoist ideology and are familiar with the strategies and combat skills of CPI (Maoist) cadres.

They have,however,been refraining from violence against civilians including politicians. Unlike Maoists in,say,Bastar,they allow government officers to work and also offers them protection from Maoists. And though it is a banned outfit,many of its members have contested elections and openly interact with political leaders.

Rivalry & differences

By announcing war,Maoists are caught in quicksand, says the TSPCs Jharkhand commander Akraman. This is no time to fight,but to awaken and prepare the masses. They have been weakened by concentrating their entire energy on launching attacks.

Akraman claims it was his platoon that killed 10 Maoists and held 25 others hostage in Lakadmanda village of Chatra in March. Akraman had joined the MCC in 1994,when he was just 12,and became a CPI (Maoist) zonal commander before he left and joined the TSPC in 2006.

The Maoists had deviated from their path and come to indulge in plain violence without a mass movement, says TSPC chief Brajesh Ganjhu. There is little Lenin or Mao left in them,he adds.

Their biggest complaint against the Maoists is that they kill their own brothers and dissenters. Around 2002,when PWG-MCC merger talks were at the peak,several comrades in Bihar and Jharkhand left the MCC on ideological grounds. Maoists began killing the deserters and then the 2004 merger with the PWG made them a stronger force.

As we had left the MCC,Maoists killed over 200 of our people from 2002-04. Here the remaining ones decided to come together and form the TSPC. Soon,others from CPI (Maoist) joined us, says Ganjhu.

CPI (Maoist) literature justifies these attacks,calls TSPC members police pets and describes Bharatji,a former MCC leader under whom the TSPC was set up,as a traitor. He later moved to Bengal.

The outfit has been wresting parts of Chatra from Maoists,besides areas in Palamu,Latehar and a few other districts on the Bihar-Jharkhand border.

Development: Lawalong block in Chatra had no phone signals,Akraman is said to have asked private companies to install towers and assured protection from Maoists. Now major cellphone companies have set up towers. In most of interior Bastar,BSNL has been planning towers for years but the project gets stalled due to the Maoist threat. Government officers consult us before implementing schemes. We ensure they work. Compare this with Maoist areas. No block development officer here can give the excuse of not visiting interior areas, TSPC spokesperson Sagar says.

A narrow lane branching off NH-99 in Lathehar district was a stretch of mud until recently. The TSPC assured officers protection from Maoists in lieu of a commission,and today the road has been constructed under PMGSY. Quality PMGSY roads have been constructed,or are under construction,through the forest that connects Palamu and Lawalong,two of their strongholds.

Chatra was among the first districts to have come under the home ministrys pilot projects for Maoist-hit areas over a decade ago. Yet Kunda and Lawalong in Chatra,where some of the TSPCs top men are based,remain block headquarters without power. There is no grid, Chatra collector Manoj Kumar says.

Politics: Chief Brajesh is among the TSPC men who,besides several of their relatives,contested and dominated the Chatra panchayat polls in 2010,the first ever in Jharkhand. Some have fought assembly polls too. Today,members of all major parties - BJP,JMM,JVM,RJD interact with those of the banned outfit. Upendra Singh,BJP leader from Lawalong,praises TSPC cadres for releasing 25 surrendered Maoists in Lakadmanda. The TSPC gave a supreme example of humanity by releasing them, Singh says,as he moves around with Ganesh Ganjhu,Brajeshs elder brother,who contested the 2009 polls on JMM ticket and came second.

Thats a strategy, says Sagar. An armed revolution is the last resort. But if we can enter politics and use the system for our ends,nothing better.

Violence: Besides inter-group killings,the only criminal charges they face are of extortion and bullying. Police concede that violence in the TSPCs areas has gone down. Chatra,once considered among the most severely Maoist-hit districts of the country,does not figure in the home ministrys recent list of 26 severely affected districts that accounted for 80 per cent of Naxal violence in the last three years. Why kill people? Yes,we want to change the system,but violence is the last resort, says Brajesh.

Alignments

Two allegations they face are that their battle with Maoists is actually one between Yadavs and Ganjhus,an SC community,and that police created them to fight Maoists. We too have heard the police are using us. But one can look at it the other way too: we are using them. We are in our nascent stage,trying to spread across Bihar,Jharkhand and other states. To avoid a confrontation with police at this moment is our strategy, Sagar says. He doesnt deny some understanding with the police.

We have no connection with them, asserts Jharkhand DGP Rajeev Kumar. Our operations against them are going on and they will be arrested soon.

Akraman explains how Ganjhus dont dominate the outfit: When we were leaving the MCC,Maoists killed five men of my squad Ritesh Kharwar (tribal),Uttaran Sao (Baniya),Jitendra Ravidas and Ishwari Yadav and Kalo Turi (tribal). None of them was a Ganjhu. He adds,This Yadav-vs-Ganjhu is propaganda both by police and Maoists. In fact,the first man to be killed in Lakadmanda encounter was our cadre Amresh Pal,and he was not a Ganjhu.

Sagar insists the split from the MCC was on an ideological and not on a caste basis. Maoist literature doesnt mention them as a Ganjhu-dominated outfit either,and lists several non-Ganjhus among the TSPC men killed.

Mostly YOUNG

500 armed cadres,thousands of supporters and members in Jharkhand and some border districts of Bihar. No woman commander

30Nearly all cadres are below that age,and possibly none has a class X cetificate. The only man in his mid-30s is chief

Brajesh Ganjhu,already termed bujurga (the old man). He is also the moderate face of the outfit.

14Age of the youngest cadre. He stands 4 foot 10 and is heavily armed,in fatigues,with gun,magazine,walkie-talkie,and bomb pouch. I dont want to encourage a child army. But baal chhapaamaar have been in all revolutions China,Vietnam,Peru, says TPSCs Jharkhand military commander Akraman. The boy does not go to school. We tried,but he wants to be with us. This too is learning.