Bangladesh – PDSU on the Killing of CPI (Maoist) General Secretary

We hereby share a statement by the People’s Democratic Students Unity (PDSU) that we have received.

Condemnation by People’s Democratic Students Unity of the Killing of CPI (Maoist) General Secretary Nambala Keshava Rao ‘Basavaraj’ and 27 Other Revolutionaries by the Expansionist Indian State

Raise Stronger Voices Demanding an Immediate End to ‘Operation Kagar’

On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in a fifty-hour-long operation in the Gundekot forest of the Mad area in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh, the Indian state killed 27 revolutionaries, including the General Secretary of the CPI (Maoist), Comrade Nambala Keshava Rao alias ‘Basavaraj,’ in the name of a so-called ‘encounter.’ The martyrdom of Comrade Basavaraj is a profound loss for the people of India and the oppressed nations and peoples of the world. These killings are a part of ‘Operation Kagar,’ a counter-Maoist-revolutionary campaign carried out against the Adivasis and oppressed people of Bastar, which is now being referred to as ‘Operation Black-Forest.’ Under this ‘Operation Kagar,’ the Indian state has massacred over 400 Adivasis and revolutionaries in the past year alone. In line with the imperialist development model based on ‘death-destruction-displacement,’ the Indian state is conducting this massacre to pave the way for multinational corporations to loot mineral resources in Bastar. They are using drones, helicopters, and advanced technologies to carry out this slaughter.

Even though the CPI (Maoist) had already proposed a ceasefire and peace talks on behalf of the people of Bastar, these fascists completely ignored the proposal and instead deployed BSF and CRPF forces in Chhattisgarh, continuing their indiscriminate killings. Such disregard is nothing new—it is part of the cowardly legacy of the Indian state. This is how they assassinated revolutionaries between 2002 and 2004, killed Comrade Azad in 2010, and Comrade Kishenji in 2011.

The Indian state’s commitment to this genocidal war and its disregard for all peaceful proposals from the people stem from its semi-colonial, semi-feudal character. A state of such nature can never resolve the socio-economic issues of the people; it cannot eradicate poverty, deprivation, or exploitation. On the contrary, it intensifies them over time. Only by uprooting imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic-comprador capitalism, and establishing a people’s democratic state and government under the leadership of the working class through a people’s democratic revolution, can these contradictions be resolved. This is the path to liberation for the people of all oppressed countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Peru, Afghanistan, and Turkey. This was the unwavering path of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, Comrade Saroj Dutta, Comrade Jahar, Comrade Azad, Comrade Kishenji, and thousands of other martyred revolutionaries. Comrade Basavaraj also walked this path.

Under the leadership and guidance of the CPI (Maoist), the people of India, especially the Adivasi peasants of central India, have been fighting along this path. It is this struggle that has become the “greatest internal threat” in the eyes of the Indian state. From this fear, the state unleashes wave after wave of massacres under different names—Green Hunt, Samadhan-Prahar, Surajkund Scheme, Kagar, and others.

Having assassinated Comrade Basavaraj, the Brahmanical Hindutva-fascist Indian state now revels in celebration. But this exploitative state forgets time and again that the communist movement did not begin with any one individual. Rather, it emerged from the hopes and aspirations of the people, built upon their collective efforts. Therefore, killing individuals cannot bring an end to this movement, because ideology never dies. From the historic peasant uprising of Naxalbari to the present day, the anti-people Indian state has constantly sought to suppress the communist movement. But the tide of people’s movements always resides within the people themselves. It may pause, it may dim, but it inevitably reawakens. Thus, Naxalbari never dies—it always leads the way.

As comrades in the struggle to establish a state and government of the oppressed nations and peoples under the leadership of the working class, we are also comrades in the world revolution of the proletariat. As comrades in the global proletarian revolution, it is our revolutionary internationalist duty to express solidarity with the revolutionary movements of other countries, alongside our own. Today, as the Indian people are shaken by the attacks of the Indian state and the Maoists leading their revolutionary struggle face losses, our hearts, too, ache.

We, the People’s Democratic Students Unity, express revolutionary respect to the martyred General Secretary of CPI (Maoist), Comrade Nambala Keshava Rao ‘Basavaraj,’ and strongly condemn the Indian state and the fascist Narendra Modi government for this assassination.

We call upon all revolutionary, democratic, and progressive organizations and individuals across the world— Increase your support for the people’s war and democratic revolution in India. Raise a stronger voice demanding an immediate end to ‘Operation Kagar’.

People’s Democratic Students Unity (PDSU)
জনগণতাক ছাত্র সঙ্ঘ

Published and circulated by the Central Convening Committee
Contact : PDSU.Bangladesh@gmail.com