India: Release Hidma’s 23!

We hereby share a summarization of an article published by Nazariya Magazine. The full article can be read here:

At the end of November 23 student activists associated with the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist student organization Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch (bsCEM) and the radical environmentalist organization, The Himkhand were arrested. They were arrested when protesting against the increasing pollution which is threatening the city of Delhi, India. They were accused with the charges of “harming national unity, attacking police officers and various trumped up charges pertaining to outraging the modesty of women police officers”. Nazariya Magazine criticizes the self-proclaimed “left” which “failed to uphold the values it preaches”, since they did no action in solidarity with the arrested students. They also failed to do solidarity actions when 9 activists were kept under unlawful custody. The organization which faced repression by that time, bsCEM called for protests demanding the release of their activists. These activists were tortured, electrocuted, women were stripped down, etc. Various “left” organizations offered either silence or active malice. Some of them labeled the placard recalling Comrade Madvi Hidma as “sectarian”, “adventurist”, etc. Nazariya Magazine stresses that “All democratic organizations must uphold the demand to release Hidma’s 23”.

There are many organizations in Delhi which hold fraternal ties with political groups upholding the Naxalite stream of politics. Many carry the name and face of Comrade Charu Majumdar in their symbols. Nazariya Magazine explains that despite these organizations use of symbols or “tag of communist revolutionaries for themselves”, they do so on ancestral grounds, since they emerged from the ranks of the original Communist Party of India (ML). While the forces which stuck to the general line established by the Naxalbari uprising coalesced into what is now the CPI (Maoist), others formed Parties such as the CPI (ML) Red Star and CPI (ML) Liberation, which “hold ideological-political-organizational positions which mirror that of the CPI and CPM, sending things back to the dark days before Charu Majumdar”. Others who claim the Naxalbari heritage are the opportunist organizations “CPI (ML) New Democracy, CPI (ML) Mass Line and CPI (ML) Janashakti”, the CRRI and UCCRI (ML) and anarcho-syndicalist organizations like “Collective”.

Most of these groups said nothing about the arrest of Hidma’s 23. Some Parties of the ruling classes, who had Party members eliminated by the Madvi Hidma-led PLGA Battalion One, have issued statements condemning the detention. Even parts of the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie-big landlords is recognizing that the demand raised by the students is a people’s concern and that students finding recourse within the politics of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as a solution to the issues that plague the people of Delhi and the entire country is a democratic right, not a matter for persecution. However, so-called “communist revolutionaries” avoid to say something about it, so that they avoid repression from the State authorities. There is a long trajectory of urban organizations facing the persecution by the old Indian State over alleged “Naxalite links”, such as the Forum Against War on People, DSU-JNU, etc. Over the last two years, bsCEM, faced persecution and minimal support from so-called “communist revolutionaries”.

Some forces, such as the co-organizers of the protest Scientists for Society have dubbed the sloganeering and self defense of the protesters as adventurist acts. Others like the AIRSO, which was at least the first organization to lodge a statement in support of the protestors, have made vague hints towards sectarianism being a problem at the protest. Nazariya Magazine question itself and answers to the question: “Was hailing Madvi Hidma and by extension, the Bastar model of people’s development and the Janathana Sarkars as a solution to the environmental issues of the people, over-estimating the given stage of development? It is a fact that since people’s dual power exists in the country in various parts, the principle task of all communists is the slogan “All Power to the Revolutionary People’s Committees. It is not adventurist to uphold the call for the defense and expansion of people’s power; it is reactionary, right opportunist and downright surrender to ignore this objective truth and side with the ruling class.” Regarding adventurism and sectarianism, they further state: “Both charges of adventurism and sectarianism are resolved with the upholding of a mass perspective and we hold that this is exactly what the protesters held.” The students criticized the root of the problem and the solution to it: “New Democratic Revolution waged against imperialism, feudalism and comprador bureaucratic capitalism.” While other forces stuck in the reformist demands and criticized or kept silent on the repression faced by revolutionary activists.

There have been also some organizations who are part of the joint platform Delhi Coordination Committee for Clean Air that argued that the principles of a united front were not properly held, and they “hijacked the affair”. Nazariya Magazine answers that “What is a gross violation of joint platform ethics is the shameless throwing under the bus undertaken by the Scientists for Society who had no spine to deal with the online trolling and BJP IT cell goons and caved in to the pressure to save their own skin from the matter by pointing out how they abandoned the site where protesters were being brutalized by the Delhi Police because of the slogans they were raising, much like the coward Ram Nath.” They condemn the cowardice that left their allies in the hands of the enemy. The event abandoned unorganized masses, who showed more courage than these “communist revolutionaries”, into the hands of repressive forces. These forces not only fail to show solidarity with the detained students, but also raise accusations against them on grounds of an alleged bad handling of the united front.

Nazariya Magazine ends the article by stating that for “those who recognize the need to smash brahmanical Hindutva fascism, whether they be in the ranks of those political forces we mentioned above or in any other, the first step towards actual freedom is the courage and discipline to not concede ground to the ruling class”. They appeal to those who faced repression to find courage to stand, taking as example those who fight. They call to achieve ideological strength, to find it in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and to understand that fear is an emotion which comes from idealist philosophy and demand the release of the Hidma’s 23.