Maoists open new front to rope in farmers

After establishing base in the tribal belts, Maoists are trying to persuade farmers to join them as armed guerrillas.

To achieve this, CPM has floated a farmers’ wing, Agra-gami Krishak Samiti, whose members will scatter in different farm belts of the country and organise peasants.

An underground Maoist spokesman in West Bengal told the media on Tuesday that the decision to form the peasants’ wing was taken at a secret meeting in the jungles of Jharkhand’s Singhbhum district last month.

“Initially, the peasants’ wing will operate in Bengal, Bihar, Chhattishgarh, Andhra, Orissa and Jharkhand. Slowly, we will try to make inroads in other states,” he said.

Explaining the reason for opening the new front, he said CPI(M) believed the deplorable condition of farmers was similar to that of the tribals.

“In tribal belts, the government and big industry houses are making joint attempts to displace locals and extract natural resources. In case of farmers, the pattern of exploitation is similar, that is through forceful acquisition of farmland for industry. We want unification of tribal and farming communities to organise a bigger war against this exploitation,” he said.