Polorg Highlights

Internal differences are quite manifest on the question of expansion of NATO. From 1991 onwards, i.e. with the end of cold war, France and Germany began mooting the idea of a pan-European security arrangement. US has the apprehension that once Germany, on its own or with France, becomes hegemonic in Central Europe it may reach some agreement with Russia over excluding USA from Eurasia. To prevent Europeans from forging an independent strategic entity, US embarked on eastward expansion of NATO and pushed through its unilateral decision as to which countries are to be admitted. Eastward expansion of NATO is an important way to keep Europe tied down to US and assert America's unipolar dominance. Moscow was opposed to this expansion of NATO but had to accede in exchange of economic incentives and a NATO-Russia permanent joint council where it will have its say in NATO decisions without veto rights.

Although US talks of 'positive engagement' with China, in practice it doggedly pursues the policy of containment of China. China is deeply worried over the expansion of NATO in Europe and the growing strategic activism of US in Central Asia that borders China to the west. To break out of the encirclement, apart from strengthening their nuclear and conventional capabilities, the Chinese have rapidly boosted their strategic cooperation with Russia. The joint communique issued after the summit meeting of Russian and Chinese leaders vowed to create an equal partnership aimed at strategic interaction in 21st century and building a multipolar world. This development is of crucial importance as it is for the first time that the two big powers have openly questioned American hegemony and talked of a multi-polar world.

Unipolar world is thus an anachronism. The objective process is leading towards multipolarity where Europe and China-Russia axis may emerge as important poles apart from US.

The Chinese Puzzle
State-owned enterprises are in deep crisis and it is reported that hundreds of thousands of workers have gone unpaid for months. The huge money lent by the state banks to ailing state enterprises has risen to $120 billion last year. Much of the borrowing, however, went just to pay wages. Reform of the state sector has been the foremost agenda in the just concluded congress of CPC. Capitalist sector is making giant strides and China is standing at crossroads.

Chinese communist party has coined the term socialist market economy that stands on the premise that within an overall socialist framework viz. communist party rule and state control over planning, finance etc., market can be guided, controlled and put to use for building socialism. This they call primary stage of socialism which is supposed to run for the next fifty years till China attains per capita income level of moderately developed capitalist countries. This revision of the classical Marxist theory on socialism is what is known as Deng Xiao Ping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. The genesis of the latter can be traced back to the two-lines struggle in the CPC since the 1950s.

We do acknowledge the enormous difficulties in building socialism in a single country, and that too in a backward Asian country.

We also refute the methodology that discusses the question of building socialism in the abstract, as an ideal utopian model that can just be transplanted anywhere, anytime by sheer will power. Instead we look at socialism as a society evolving out of contradictions of capitalism, evolving as a natural process of history and therefore adopting myriad forms in different contexts and different countries.

Still, the whole perception of socialist market economy appears to be highly controversial and in view of the fact that the Chinese economy is becoming overwhelmingly capitalist, regional imbalances and rich-poor divide are growing, a whole new class of neo-rich is coming up and corruption is becoming quite rampant, we cannot but feel seriously concerned about the future of Chinese socialism.

Though there remains a serious question mark on the nature and future of Chinese socialism, yet we prefer to refrain from drawing any hasty conclusion. After the fall of Soviet Union, and earlier the failure of Chinese Cultural Revolution, the whole debate on building socialism is reopened. In this context, any inner-party struggle to mature within the CPC itself requires a considerable grace period. Moreover, we must remain on guard regarding anti-China rhetoric, because to rope in India is an important component of US policy in its pursuit of containment of China.

On Congress Decline
The [Congress] government that introduced the new economic policy of liberalisation proved to be most liberal on corruption and was exposed as the most corrupt central government India has ever had. This party stands thoroughly discredited. In particular, its marginalisation in UP and Bihar, the two most populous Hindi-speaking states of India have raised a serious question mark over any immediate prospects for its revival. Then there are unending factional strifes and threats of splits of important segments. By changing its leadership and invoking Nehru dynasty, it is trying hard to refurbish its image but still there are no signs of its catching the popular imagination.

Although in terms of political influence and organisational network it is the only party that has an all-India presence, yet it does not appear to be anywhere near capturing the central power on its own. In this sense the situation is quite different from what obtained in 1977 and even in 1989. Therefore the support that it has extended to the UF government is of a long-term, strategic nature. It hopes to play up the contradictions surfacing in UF and seek allies from centrist and regional camps in order to muster a majority in next elections. It does retain considerable manoeuvring capability to create confusion and split in the so-called third camp of left, centrist and regional formations and make a comeback in the form of a Congress-led coalition.

The BJP Threat
BJP made important gains in the last elections. Still it was short of majority and failed to muster the same despite best of its efforts. It has however succeeded in finding allies in - apart from Shiv Sena - BSP, Samata, Akalis and Haryana Vikas Party. It is desperately trying to win over some regional forces to tilt the balance in its favour and Atal Bihari Vajpayee even mooted the idea of a national democratic front. Somewhere along the line it has realised that it has reached its zenith and has not been able to expand much beyond northern and western India. Then it has its share of Vaghelas and Khuranas.

To enhance its credibility and acceptability which got a drubbing after Babri Masjid episode, it has adopted two-pronged strategy. In the first place, it is trying hard to appropriate the legacy of freedom movement and for that it tries to project itself as the heir apparent to the Gandhi-Patel tradition of Congress. This, it hopes, will help it make further forays into the Congress base. Secondly, it is trying hard to shed its bania-upper caste image and penetrate among dalits, backwards as well as other social groups who earlier formed the base of Charan Singh in North India. For that it advocates strategic partnership with parties like Samata and BSP and is projecting state-level leaders from other communities.

Propounding the swadeshi plank it assures India's industrialists of a better bargain with multinationals. BJP's projection of a national agenda and its harping on Sucheta (purity) in politics etc. have helped it muster the support of large sections of desperate urban middle classes.

In short, the rightwing shift of Indian polity that arose as a consequence of economic crisis and political turmoil of late 80s has found its centralised expression in BJP and a real saffron threat is for the first time looming large over India a preview of which can perhaps be best seen in the second coming of Kalyan Singh in U.P.  BJP's agenda includes pursuing chauvinist policy vis-a-vis India's neighbours, particularly Pakistan, hotting up of nuclear arms race, transforming of India as a Hindu Rashtra where religious minorities will be treated as second-grade citizens, undermining of federal polity, unleashing brutal state repression and organising private armies of landlords to crush agrarian movements of the rural poor, militarily suppressing ongoing movements of national self-determination and crushing all sorts of dissent in intellectual, aesthetic and academic fields. In short, imposing a fascist dictatorship in India.

It must not be forgotten that the reigning chaos in the country, erosion of the credibility of institutions of parliamentary democracy, thorough degeneration of Congress, disintegration of the socalled social justice camps, devaluation in the Left's ideological moorings and the failings of the present UF set up - all have created a wide space for BJP. In reality, the Indian ruling establishment is all set to welcome a BJP takeover by next elections, if not earlier. .

The UF Phenomenon
The UF phenomenon has been described in several ways. Let us judge their validity. .

In the first place, it is being said that the UF symbolises the advent of coalition era in Indian politics. Of course, with India's multifaceted diversity exhibiting itself in full it may prove difficult for any single party to command enough majority and in this sense coalition age appears to have come to stay. But a coalition arrangement where both the major national parties, BJP and Congress, which together have nearly two-thirds of parliamentary seats, are out of power can only be an exception rather than a rule. Sooner or later either of the two will rally enough support behind them to run the government. .

Secondly, the UF has been described as marking the advent of greater federalisation of polity where regional parties enjoy considerable clout in running the central government. The role of regional parties has indeed risen in Indian political system, particularly with the advent of new economic policy. The policy, by relaxing central regulations, has given the states much freedom in directly inviting private investments. State chief ministers are making a beeline to the West to attract foreign capital to their respective states. They are also competing among themselves to give tax incentives to the investors.   .

Powerful regional forces are quite averse to accept statehood or autonomy demands raised by sub-national groups in their respective states. In most of the cases regional power groups are crucially dependent on landlord-kulak groupings and as such they are not keen on pursuing land reforms. .

Therefore, federalism in absolute sense, in Indian context is not all that golden in carrying out democratic reforms.  .

Thirdly, UF is projected as an anti-BJP, non-Congress front, a united front of workers-peasants and progressive/forward-looking bourgeoisie, a unity which in the process of development of proletarian hegemony will in course of time transform into the cherished people's democratic front, and as a union of best of the left and the Gandhian legacies etc. These views have been expressed by none other than Comrade Namboodripad in the official CPI(M) organ. These were the opinions in the formative stage of the front when the CPI(M) leadership was busy spreading the myth that CMP has rejected the new economic policy of Rao government and the Congress support is unconditional and out of compulsion. .

Since then much water has flown down the Yamuna. Congress has wrested the initiative and exercises greater influence on UF government. CPI(M) on the other hand feels marginalised and has become much more critical in its outpourings. Ironically, it is now CPI(M) which has to continue in UF out of compulsion. .

It is not known how CPI(M) leadership judges its earlier formulation but all said and done the hope of transforming UF into a people's democratic front is belied and now it is just a question of political exigency. . .

On Basic Orientation
The anti-BJP, anti-Congress theme has already been watered down [by UF parties] to an anti-BJP, non-Congress plank and at least in the case of certain UF constituents it has further been diluted to an anti-BJP, pro-Congress stance. We, however, are strongly of the opinion that since both the Congress and BJP continue to remain the two main all-India parties of the ruling classes, we must treat both as our primary enemies and remain firm on our anti-BJP anti-Congress orientation. .

As long as UF dispensation persists as a ruling formation and CPI-CPI(M) remain part of it, there is no question of our pursuing any left confederation with them at the national level. Such efforts may however be taken up at the state levels where they form part of the opposition. .

Anyway, with increasing Congress intervention in UF affairs a shift in the political equation may make the agenda of left confederation alive again. .

Apart from these left parties, the democratic front we perceive includes host of other democratic forces operating at different levels in India and many of them may have nothing to do with parliamentary politics. It must be kept in mind here that communist party strives to unite with a wide range of democratic forces but it is not the job of the communist party to organise a democratic party itself. .

There are various kinds of democratic forces working in different parts of India with a wide ranging agenda, from radical reforms to environment. Groups like PWG which are essentially radical petty-bourgeois formations eventually face the question of political liberty against the government. This necessitated their active intervention in civil liberty movement in Andhra and now they have mooted a semi-political formation named AIPRF. Similar attempts at forming political or semi-political formations are there by other democratic forces. Our policy is to let them form democratic parties and we shall strive to unite them in a common democratic front.  .

Tactical and temporary alliances with centrist parties on some immediate political agenda are also possible in specific conditions. But they should not be taken as reliable allies and strategic, programmatic cooperation with them is ruled out.  .

We do recognise the threat of Saffron power taking over India. The undoing of UF may well prove to be the catalyst for such an eventuality. Although BJP has its own problems, internal rifts and limited reach as of now in many parts of the country, yet the threaat is indeed real and we must not underestimate it. And if that happens certain readjustments of policy may also have to be effected depending upon the concrete situation obtaining then. Whatever may be the situation, Party's independence and initiative must be retained and we must isolate the Congress from any secular or democratic anti-BJP configuration. Otherwise nothing can stop Congress from dominating any such polarisation and that will mean surrendering all the gains of last 50 years of democratic movements. Whatever readjustments are made they should conform to these basic parameters. . .

Dalit Question
Dalit question has emerged as a major question, particularly with the phenomenal rise of BSP. BSP, after a good beginning in Punjab, registered a steep rise in UP, spread to MP and some other states. At one point of time it appeared set to take Andhra by storm and there it got a sympathetic response from various Naxalite factions. Radicals exempted them from their ban on conducting election propaganda in areas of their influence, a certain ML faction declared their open support to BSP in the elections, some ex-PWG stalwarts even joined BSP and a prominent ideologue even credited Kanshi Ram with correctly applying Marxism-Leninism and Mao's Thought in Indian conditions! This is how dalit discourse entered ML movement and sought to transform the class parameters of the movement. .

Our Party firmly opposed these deviations and upheld the Marxist viewpoint that expanding the frontiers of class struggle can be the only point of departure for Marxists while they undertake struggles against caste oppression and for social equality of dalits. Kanshi Rams take up these issues on the premise of negation of class struggle and ultimately end up preaching class peace and becoming part and parcel of the ruling elite. In areas of Bihar where dalit movement for social dignity and equality has become part and parcel of the class struggle of the rural poor, BSP elements exposed their true worth. They were found hobnobbing with Ranbir Sena and subsequently BSP itself made the common cause with the feudal-Brahminical party, BJP in Uttar Pradesh. In Bihar we successfully prevented the intrusion of BSP in our areas of struggle and in Uttar Pradesh we have taken up the challenge of restoring the old left bases of CPI which were swept away by BSP back to the left fold. .

BSP's flirting with Congress and BJP and its consistent anti-Left attitude has helped remove illusions in progressive intellectual circles including among dalit intellectual circles. It still, however, enjoys considerable support among dalit peasantry and dalit petty-bourgeois sections in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati's stint in power and her symbolic acts like Ambedkar Village scheme, installing statues of proponents of dalit liberation, renaming district etc. have stood her in good stead. In Punjab, it developed a totally opportunistic alliance with Akalis, a party of kulaks and reaped good harvest in parliamentary elections but in assembly elections when it contested alone it came a cropper. .

In UP too it faces problems in keeping its flock of MLAs together - many of them were drawn to BSP from other parties, and interestingly a good many of them are from upper castes, just to cash in on its dalit vote bank which Kanshi Ram traded with impunity. This is why the party insisted - even though it had to finally back out - on its demand for having one of its own men as the Speaker with the passing of the reins of chief ministership from Mayawati to Kalyan Singh. Its forays in South, West and eastern India failed to deliver. .

BSP, at the grassroots level, developed a desire among the dalit castes for dignity, equality and share in political power. At the top however it developed a class of dalit elites who make a vulgar display of wealth and live a decadent bourgeois life. Ultimate destiny of BSP which essentially represent the class interest of the above-mentioned dalit elites and the petty bourgeoisie lies in absorption by BJP or Congress(I). But the heightened consciousness of the broad dalit masses can definitely be mobilised under the red banner for wages, land, social dignity and political emancipation. . .

On 17-Party Opposition Front in Bihar
[In the course of anti-Laloo movement] a 15-party front, recently extended to 17, came up. It was for the first time that CPI and CPI(M) joined us in a political front. The course of political events forced them to override their earlier rigid condition that unless we change our policy vis-a-vis Left Front government of West Bengal, they will not cooperate with us anywhere in India. 

Barring us most of the other major parties in this front are also constituents of the United Front at the Centre. The question therefore remains whether the front in Bihar should be seen as just an extension of the UF in Bihar and led in that direction or it should be allowed to grow as a revolutionary democratic answer to the deepening socio-economic and political crisis in the state. Again, looked at as primarily a coalition of Left parties, the CPI prefers to treat it as an extension of the Left Front that exists and rules in West Bengal with the only difference that in Bihar it fancies itself as the "natural" leader of the Left! But every observer who keeps track of the Bihar scene knows it well that over the years the CPI has lost much of its independent mass base and even its lopsidedly large legislative presence is attributable primarily to the strategic alliance it was having with Laloo Prasad Yadav for the last seven years.

This is also borne out by the fact that since the beginning of the movement the party has had to take disciplinary action against as many as five of its MLAs for displaying a soft approach to the Laloo government. Yet the party's stature as a major all-India Left party depends very much on Bihar and the party is therefore desperate to impose its leadership over the front. All this has greatly hampered the consolidation of the front. There is no convener, no spokesperson, no centre of operation. Instead of grappling with substantive issues thrown up by the unfolding situation in Bihar and engage in really vigorous mass action, there is a tendency to carry the front along the beaten track of formalistic and tokenistic programmes. As a result its capacity to take on the BJP-Samata combination remains underutilised.

Such a situation obviously poses a critical challenge to our Party. It has taken great and sustained efforts on our part to bring the present front in Bihar into being. Thus on the one hand we have to keep it going and try to make it more effective and on the other hand we must wage a relentless struggle against the opportunist Left's attempt to dictate terms. While it is our foremost duty to maintain the front and its unity, avoid bickerings on petty matters, and be ready to make adjustments where no question of principle is involved, we must at the same time forcefully assert on questions of political importance and step by step, through the process of unity and struggle, persuasion and polemics, establish Party's leading role there. .

Muslim Question
Muslim question assumes a very significant role here. The religious persecution they face gives rise to a peculiar minority syndrome which has been further reinforced by the rise of the forces of Hindutava. This syndrome defines the community's response where the community starts imagining itself as a different nation altogether. Its response gets conditioned by the single parameter of communalism and it detaches itself from other movements of democratic reforms, against corruption, against criminalisation of politics et al. This also allows fundamentalist forces as well as 'musclemen' to usurp the leadership.

On our part, closer interaction with the Muslim masses and understanding their specific problems had been a major area of weakness. Inquilabi Muslim Conference that we launched in Bihar helped the Party to a significant extent in developing linkages, understanding their problems and formulating our response. Although by itself it couldn't advance much and often failed to intervene in the debates within the community on the question of women, reservations for dalit Muslims etc., yet it helped in bringing seriousness in Party's work among Muslims. Propaganda in Urdu, interaction with Muslim intelligentsia and party leaders addressing special conventions or gatherings have all got a fillip. It is still much too short of requirement. Our experiences show that in many an area in Bihar, CPI(ML) is getting a good response among Muslims and in answer to the question 'Who after Laloo?' CPI(ML) is often mentioned nowadays. We also developed a close friendly relation with the Lucknow-based All-India Muslim Forum and the Bihar branch of Indian National League. The response of young Muslim students of JNU and the Aligarh Muslim University towards AISA and their firmly siding with Chandrashekhar the martyr, against Shahbuddin the killer, is very encouraging and shows that Muslim students and youth are ready to break through the old pattern of Muslim politics and are searching their allies in left forces.

Laloo and Mulayam are no longer the undisputed heroes of the Muslim society. It is standing on the threshold of change and young students are the representatives of that urge. Bringing more and more of them to the Party stream becomes an urgent task. .

Peasant Movement
- An Overview
Our main areas of peasant movements lie in Bihar. Apart from that we have important pockets in some eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh as well as in Pilibhit of Terai region of that state, Burdwan-Nadia and Malda-Dinajpur districts of West Bengal and in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. There are pockets of peasant struggles at a formative stage in Udaipur-Amarpur region of Tripura, Raigada and Gajapaty districts of Orissa, Nagapattinam-Tanjavur districts of Tamil Nadu, some pockets of Assam, Rajasthan and Raipur in Madhya Pradesh. 

In Bihar, in 16 districts of Central and North Bihar intensive peasant movement is going on. After the last Party congress most rapid expansion has taken place in Navada, Gopalganj and West Champaran districts. The movement mainly revolves around issues like increase in the wages of agrarian labourers including equal wages for women labourers, house-sites and pucca houses for rural poor, land and crop seizure where the land is illegally occupied by landlords, mutt lands and government lands etc., implementation of government schemes for rural poor where block officials and district authorities are invariably targeted, sharecroppers' rights as well as a host of other demands related to overall agrarian development in favour of small and middle peasantry. Strikes of agrarian labourers, economic blockade of erring landowners, gherao of block offices, jan adalats where landlords surrender or government officials are forced to accept people's verdict, armed resistance against private landlord armies and other mafia gangs and popular resistance against police atrocities in which women take an active part etc. have been common forms of struggle. Wages have been increased in innumerable villages and thousands of acres of land have been seized. Social dignity of rural poor belonging to dalit castes vis-a-vis upper castes remains a major issue of conflict despite all the tall talks of social justice and dalit empowerment. In Bihar, wherever movement of rural poor intensifies it invariably matures into armed conflict with the might of armed gangs of landlords and in many a case turns into a veritable civil war between two sections of the population as armed gangs generally enjoy the support of their respective castes. We are engaged in such wars in Bhojpur with Ranbir Sena, with Sahabu gang in Siwan and with armed mercenaries in West Champaran. Several other districts like Rohtas, Buxar, Patna Rural, Jehanabad, Navada, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj are standing on the verge of such a war. In the social conditions of Bihar, where we operate in the mainstream of Indian rural society - the core areas of classical village communities of yesteryear - the administration has found these private armies quite handy in countering revolutionary movements. The local administration turns impotent in the face of large scale social conflict. Higher state intervention comes when we take the upper hand or when the civil war threatens to destroy both the warring classes and castes. This is the essential reason behind the flourishing of private armies and for the continuing war of attrition.

Main Features of the Movement
1) While summing up, we find that land question still remains the major question in many areas. However as the degree of implementation of land reforms differ in different states the general slogan to advance land reforms also differs in different states.

2) Establishing people's control over common property viz. Ahar, Pukhar, Talab (minor irrigation sources), river and sandbed etc. is a major agenda of struggle. Generally feudal and mafia groups exercise control over them.

3) The question of wages, equal wages for equal work for both men and women, better working conditions, homestead land and pucca houses etc. are more or less common demands of the rural proletariat throughout the country. In the case of land grants it should be demanded that pattas should be issued jointly in the name of women too.

4) Issues of corruption in panchayats, in block offices where money intended for relief to the rural poor or for the benefit of small and middle peasants are siphoned away by corrupt officials in league with powerful landlords and kulak groups who also control the political power etc. are very important in popular mobilisation.

5) Tribal questions, whether they are reflected through Jharkhand movement or in the movements of hill districts and other tribal areas of Assam, or the girijan movement in Andhra Pradesh etc. are essentially peasant questions and therefore usurpation of their land by usurers-merchants, their rights over forest land and forest produce etc. are major questions.

6) Wherever the movement assumes intensity private armies of landlords or the goons of the reactionary political parties resort to killing Party leaders and cadres and organise massacres of people. Police atrocities also invariably follow.

7) Anarchist organisations which are degenerating into money-collecting machines are indulging in a killing-spree of our cadres and people and are using ultra-left rhetoric to the hilt to cover up their dubious links and their dirty mission of disrupting organised mass movements.

The following points merit serious attention:
A. We think that owing to considerable difference in the agrarian situation a general peasant movement at national level and therefore a consolidated all-India peasant body doesn't have much of a significance. An all-India coordination body to exchange experiences and occasionally issuing policy statements and organising seminars, workshops etc. is more than enough. Even in the states, district or regional level kisan sabha formations may have to play much important autonomous role as in big states conditions vastly differ in different regions. Demand-specific and area-specific peasant organisations may also play an important part in mobilising broad peasantry. 

B. The question of agrarian labourers however is increasingly assuming greater importance in agrarian scene as well as in national politics. Demand for a central legislation relating to them is becoming powerful. The process of agrarian reforms - under the auspices of liberalisation and globalisation - will further push their question to the fore. Agrarian reforms are bound to promote capitalism in agriculture; it may be of whatever variety, but it is capitalism nonetheless.

Moreover, as sections of erstwhile intermediate castes are becoming important segments of power groups, the agrarian movement has to increasingly target wide-ranging sections of capitalist farmers and rich peasants. Movements of agrarian labourers, therefore, shall assume important political connotation. To prepare for the future, we shall have to organise a preparatory committee to study the issue and explore the possibility of launching an agrarian labourers organisation.

C. When we get trapped in wars of attrition against private armies, the functioning of peasant association or movement on peasant issues are left behind. Such a situation is of course forced on us and we can do little in avoiding it. But then how to continue the functioning of peasant association is a paramount question that we have not been able to solve as yet. We repeatedly tried to use any lull period to activate such movements but no proper mechanism could be developed. Perhaps, initiatives from state-level peasant association leadership at this juncture may be of crucial importance. And demand-specific organisation may come in handy to tackle such situations.

D.As Marxists we must understand that the emergence of a new breed of private army and the present spate of massacres are intimately related with the dynamics of present-day politics. If one probes deeper, one can easily see that the intensity of operations of private armies is concentrated mainly in areas where we have thrown a serious parliamentary challenge to major ruling parties.

Whatever problems the anarchists may pose to law and order situation they don't pose any challenge to the political hegemony of the ruling classes. If in '70s the call for election boycott was the expression of extreme revolutionary advance, in '90s it has degenerated into extreme opportunist betrayal. This is how, dialectically things transform into their opposites with the change in conditions. Election boycott has come in handy for the shrewd bourgeois politicians to use such groups for their ends. There are innumerable evidences of MCC and PU cadres actively mobilising votes for JD candidates in Bihar elections.

Then again it is totally false propaganda that we have given up the policy of armed resistance. The fact is that general arming of masses has gone up many many fold compared to any other times. In hundreds of villages in Bihar regular exchange of fire has gone on in all these years of parliamentary politics. Thousands of our comrades including entire district committee leadership have been warranted throughout the state for organising resistance and have to work in almost underground conditions.

In short, it is not our retreat but our advance as a major force challenging the economic, social and political hegemony of the forces of status quo that has led to these sharp attacks against us. It should never be forgotten that political initiatives, movements on popular issues and developing popular resistance are the key elements in taking up the challenge of combined onslaught of feudals-state. The point is not just to smash this or that sena by some way or other. More important thing is to raise the political consciousness of people, effect a change in social and political balance of forces and ensure the broadest mobilisation of people in the process. Otherwise we will be reduced just to a militant outfit. Yet, as protracted armed conflicts are inalienable part of peasant movement in Bihar, Party must intensify its state of preparedness. In particular, decisive blows to the enemy are of crucial importance and hence armed formations must be organised at a higher level to accomplish the same.