Saturday, May 12, 2018

India: Red Salute to Comrade Arvind by Harsh Thakor




DIP OUR BLOOD IN MEMORY OF IMMORTAL LEADER OF C.P.I. (MAOIST) COMRADE ARVIND OR DEVKUMAR WHO EXUDED IDEOLOGY OF MARXISM-LENISM -MAOISM AND WAS A CRUSADER FOR LIBERATION OF MANKIND TILL HIS LAST BREATH .

UNFLINCHINGLY DEFENDED THE CUTTING EDGE OF PROTRACTED PEOPLES WAR AND FOUGHT AGAINST ALL RIGHTIST AND REVISIONIST DEVIATIONS WITH SHARPNESS OF A SWORD OR A BOULDER WITHSTANDING A GALE.

MAY NEW RED ROSES BLOOM TO CONTINUE HIS LEGACY AND MAY HIS SPIRIT BE RESSURRECTED WHEN HINDU FASCISM HAS PUT THE NATION IN THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR .

On April 22nd the birthday of Comrade Lenin, Comrade Arvind or Devkumar departed from us. His death was major loss to the revolutionary movement being the foremost leader of the C.P.I.(Maoist) in Bihar-Jharkhand.

Testimony that he departed so close to the birth bicentennial of Immortal Karl Marx.

A public meeting was held by the Comrade Arvind or Devkumar memorial Commitee comprising about 300 persons in Sulucheka vilage in Jehenabad.

It was presided by Comrade Arjun Prasad Singh ,formerly an important activist of the erstwhile Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Samiti and associated with erstwhile C.P.I.(M.L.)Party Unity group.

He summed up the political life of Comrade Arvind .
Other speakers were Rajballam Das (convenor of the memorial committee,)  Advocate Uday Pratap ,Prabhavati Devi (wife of com. Devkumar), Achidanand Prabhat (former secretary of Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Parishad) , Ramnivas Sharma of C.P.I.(M.L.) Liberation,Tapeshwar Singh of Communist Party of India and democratic activists Manoj Sharma,Sunita Devi ,Krishna Prasad .

They all praised his contribution highlighting that he forfeited a lucrative career for devotion to revolutionary cause.Comrade Dev Kumar's wife was also present.

He was born in 1950 on 24th November in Sukuchalak village in Jehanabad district.His father was an office karmachari and his mother a housewife.From his shool days he was inspired by struggle for liberation.

He gained his baptism in the Lohaite movement that had it's inception in 1967-68 .Later in 1974 he came in touch with Dr.Vinayan, a leader of the Jayaprakash Narayan Movement of 1974 ,and played a major role in the JP students and youth movement in Bihar in that year.

In 1977 in the period of the regime of the newly elected Janata party he came into contact with Comrade Narayan Sanyal which was the turning point in his political life giving him an inception to Maoist movement.He realized the futility of the compromising or class collaborationist line of Jayprakash Narayan.

He played a major role in directing the peasant organization , Mazdoor Kisan sangrami Samiti from it's inception in 1978 playing major role in it's inaugural conference in 1981 and the 2nd conference in 1983.

With great determination he defended the line of armed agrarian revolutionary resistance and played a major role for sowing the seeds of the historic peasant movement built..An unforgettable joint front resistance was organized in a rally with C.P.I.(M.L.) Liberation.

With great determination and skill he organized landless dalits to confront the tyranny of landlord armies or senas.

He played a complementary role the MKSS secretary Krishna Singh and deputy Dr..Vinayan and took m ore responsibility after the assassination of the leader Krishna Singh in June 1984.On April 19th a massacre took place of dalit labourers in Arwal for which a major statewide protest comprising 40000 people was organized in Patna.Comrade Arvind played the role of an architect in making the protest a success deploying every ounce of his energy in mobiliising activists.

He had great insight in the subjective strengths of the enemy and the revolutionary forces.

In the period from 1978-86 of the practice of C.P.I.(M.L.) Party Unity guiding Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Samiti was a vivid illustration of practice of mass line in armed agrarian revolutionary movement..

A new chapter can be written in the history of revolutionary movement of India with the peasant upsure of the MKSS spreading like wildfire particulary in Jehanbad, Aurangabad, Daltangonj areas.

I can't help recounting how intellectuals were so impressed with the work from so many streams .

In 1987 he staunchly opposed the trend within the Mazdoor Kisan Sangram Samiti that leaned towards reformism and armed struggle advocated by erstwhile secretary Dr Vinayan.Dr.Vinayan opposed the formation and resistance of armed squads and his line bent towards that of Jayprakash Narayan.

Like a boulder withstanding a gale in the 1987 Comrade Arvind defended line of armed agrarian revolutionary struggle and in 1987 became the Bihar state secretary of the C.P.I.(M.L.) Party Unity group and was apponted the general secretary of the Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Samiti,which was officially banned in 1986 after the Arwal massacre.

From the early 1990's he played a vanguard role in the consolidation of the agrarian movement in Jenahabad and Palamau districts with Koel region becoming a guerilla Zone.

With dialectical precision he mantained the balance between the mass struggles and armed movements.

With great craft and relentlessness he revived the MKSS which was earlier banned into the Mazdoor Kisan Sangrami Parishad .Still there were several regions where mass struggles were developing like Khagaria,Aurangbad and Jehanbad.

New mass fronts were founded like the Bharat Naujwan Sabha and the democratic students Union.Sadly in 1996 group clashes occured between the Party Unity group and the Maoist Communist Centre squads.

With great skill he planned the armed resistance against the landlord senas who were blessed by the administration.

Morally he was one of the pioneers of the Jehanabad movement.

He was arrested 3 times in his career and was amongst the most hunted leaders in the country with tag of one crore on his head.He was arrested in 1992.Singh was arrested for the first time in 1992 by Bihar Police and kept as a political prisoner in Bankipur Central Jail, Patna. After 3 years, he was released on bail. 

On 12 June 2003, he was again arrested in Patna by Special Task Force and was held as a political prisoner in Beur Central Jail, Patna, Jehanabad Jail and Bhagalpur Central Jail for more than 2 years. He mobilised the inmates and went on hunger strike several times against the corruption involved in Indian prisons and to fulfill the basic demands of innocent prisoners.

In 1998 the C.P.I.(M.L.)Party Unity and C.P.I.(M.L.)Party Unity merged in which Comrade Arvind had played an important role.The unity consolidated the eventual re-organization of the Communist party .Group clashes continued with MCCI til 2001 which were stopped after bilateral talks and mutual self-criticism.In 2004 the Maoist Communist Centre merged with the C.P.I.(M.L.) Peoples War group to form the C.P.I.(Maoist).Comrade Arvind played a major role in stopping the inter-group clashes earlier with M.C.C.I. .His non-sectarian approach played an important role in the mergers with Peoples War group and the MCCI.

After the formation of Maoist party Comrade Arvind was inducted as a member of the he became a member of the Central Committee and Central Military Commission. In 2013 he was elected to the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).He played a major role in formulating the military line in accordance with the subjective situation prevailing.With meticuluos skill he handled the problems and contradictions and stood up like a thorn bad flesh to critiques who claimed that the party was implementing terrorist line of functioning as seperate functions.

From a mere embryo 44 years ago he evolved into one of India's greatest revolutionaries.Starting as a mass peasant organizer and cadre of the Party Unity Group in 1980 he went on to become a central commitee member of the C.P.I(Maoist) which is a tribute to his perseverance and dedication.Till the very end Comrade Arvind defended the Leninist-Maoist party concept and line of protracted peoples war.Inspite of setbacks facing the party and movement and failing health Arvind kept the torch burning,never yielding under any circumstances.His practice is an example that the the movement of Maoist party is not a terrorist one and even if mistakes in massline has it's roots in the opressed masses. In the end he succumbed to a heart attack.

He may have departed but his spirit still shimmers to extinguish the darkness of fascism or imperialism.Arvind is an ideal illustration that still the spirit of defending line of Maoism exists in the densest of forests or the most turbulent of rivers.

He blended the heart of a poet with the skill of an architect .Let us hope his spirit is ressurected with new seeds planted to enable many new roses to bloom. 

I owe a lot of gratitude to comrade Arjun Prasad Singh for information on comrade Arvind's life history.

It was invaluable.




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