Musahari Struggle
The New Democracy, the Organ of the Central Committee of CPI(ML) TND, in its October 1996 issue has come up with a five-page slanderous piece against our Party and the glorious peasant struggles led by us in Bihar. The write-up entitled Report from the Area of Musahari Peasant Movement — Another Betrayal by Revisionist Liberation levels wild allegation that the Musahari struggle has been betrayed by us.
Venting its spleen against us, the New Democracy writes: "Liberation, particularly in Bihar, has made militant economism the focal point for deceiving the broad peasant masses. The fate of the land struggles which they have conducted in the past ten years in areas of peasant movement have either ended in half-baked compromises with the feudal forces, or they have been forced to kneel before the government-landlords nexus. In the beginning they try to defend their existence by exhibiting a superficial militancy in the land struggles, and then at a particular point of conflict, they retreat from the struggles and adopt the path of class collaboration". Well, such an unimaginable and farfetched assessment of the revolutionary peasant struggles in Bihar led by CPI(ML) Liberation, even if it had been made from their sectarian interests and with factional bias, puts a question mark over the very revolutionary calibre of this group. This group which is nowhere to be seen in the arena of political struggles needs a mirror to understand what is economism. If the windbags of TND hope to cover up their own bankruptcy from their own ranks through such calumny and distortions and by spewing venom on Bihar peasant struggles, they will be sorely disappointed. Facts are stubborn things and no amount of slander can smother reality.
Their specific charges on CPI(ML) Liberation over Musahari struggle are: 1) The struggle in Dumri village is over 42 acres of ceiling-surplus land of the Dumri Math but the Liberation leaders settled for three acres of land. Whereas they are struggling for all 42 acres. 2) During the joint meeting with the administration Liberation leader Comrade Meena Tiwari demanded the arrest of one Ram Briksh Ram, a leader of their Bihar Kisan Samiti.
Both are patent lies. Let us set the records straight. Dumri village of Musahari is on the bank of Gandak river. This year this panchayat was severely damaged by land erosion due to heavy flood. The peasants were forced to flee and took shelter in other hutments or at a dam site from where they were forcefully evicted by the police under the garb of a High Court order. The administration gave assurances for alternative sites time and again but didn’t provide any. Seeing this, our Party mobilised the peasants to capture the land of nearby Math which was under ceiling. The 42 acres of land of the Math was transferred as a private property by the management of the Math. The peasants seized 4 acres 10 decimals of land and decided to settle the flood-affected people. Under our initiative erection of huts were started. The local TND unit also involved themselves in the issue.
Meanwhile, the feudals of the area started getting organised against this struggle and started pressurising the district administration. On September 13, a big police posse led by DM and SP reached the spot to evict the people. Com. Meena Tiwari and Krishna Mohan, district leaders of Liberation, who had rushed there stopped the police from eviction. While they were arguing with the district officials, criminals and local goondas hired by the landlords came in a tractor carrying firearms and started destroying the huts. Seeing this Liberation leaders rushed towards there. The criminals suddenly started attacking Meena Tiwari and Krishna Mohan. Seeing their leaders being attacked, especially a women leader, the masses, with whatever weapons they could lay their hands upon, attacked the goons, chased them away and rescued Meena Tiwari and Krishna Mohan. While all this was going on the local leaders of TND were nowhere to be seen. They had simply fled. Seeing the militant resistance of the masses the administration agreed for talks on resettlement. During the talks, which only concerned about 4 acres 10 decimals of occupied land, after much argument, the DM agreed to allot 3 acres. This, according to New Democracy is a betrayal. Did they hope to settle all 42 acres of Math land through talks with DM? The TND windbags should know that would require a struggle of a different order. Or, if they were not ready to negotiate the immediate issue of resettlement and were against settling for anything less than 42 acres, why did they come for the joint negotiations at all in the first place? The struggle for remaining land will go on, but not under the TND cowards.
Regarding the other charge, one of our comrades who had recently joined us from TND was murdered by some landlords in collusion with Ram Briksh Ram. While raising the demand for the arrest of killers, if the name of one of their activists figured, it is for TND to investigate the issue and take action against such bad elements in their ranks.
Despite our knowledge of the involvement of TND in the murder of our comrade, we preferred to avoid publishing the report for the sake of developing unity between our two organisations at the national level. Now when TND has resorted to a slander campaign we are forced to come out with the real facts.
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