The Hindu Business Line : PW, MCC put 'Black Chapter' behind

Naxalite leaders gathered at the Marri Chenna Reddy Institute for peace talks with the Andhra Pradesh Government on Friday in Hyderabad. Mr Ramakrishna, State Secretary, CPI (ML) People's War, and Mr Jana Reddy (on the other side right), the State Home Minister, along with other ministers and officials. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , Oct. 15

THE road to the merger of the CPI (ML) (People's War) and Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) was thorny. In fact, it was soaked with blood with internecine killings despite the fact they were engaged in talks ever since their inception.

The `Black Chapter in Indian revolution' that lasted for two years (1998-2000) had left a large number of cadres from both sides dead, settling scores.

The first-ever talks between the two parties took place as early as 1981 by Kondapalli Seetaramaiah (KS) and Kanai Chatterjee (KC) — the founders of the two parties that believed in "protracted armed struggle' to liberate the oppressed masses.

"Though the parties belonged to different streams, they felt that there were strong grounds to merge as both were traversing a similar path," the CPI (Maoist) stated in its review of the merger process.

There was a lull of ten years before the talks took off seriously in 1992.

While stating that the process would be taken up at a later period, they suspended talks for a while.

This followed soured relationships, particularly after the PW merged with Party Unity in 1998.

Rethinking in MCC and appeals from revolutionary forces in India and abroad ultimately resulted in the cessation of clashes early in 2000. Thereafter, the two parties engaged in joint political campaigns that culminated in the merger.

There is a tailpiece to the merger episode. The merger was announced at the joint meeting of two Central Committees at an undisclosed forest location somewhere in North India on September 21.

The very same day Chief Ministers of the Naxal-effected States engaged in a serious dialogue under the leadership of the Union Home Minister in Hyderabad.

Worse still, the Centre had cautioned the States about such merger and asked them to pre-empt the same.

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