Worried over the continuing loss of senior leadership and the revolutionary movement failing to strike root in urban areas, the CPI (Maoist) has begun a serious exercise train its leaders in identifying their mistakes.
The ‘Leadership Training Programme' is meant to help the Maoist leaders reinvent the ideological moorings of the Protracted People's War (PPW) and check ‘lethargy' — a direct offshoot of ‘years of stagnation' [in spread of revolutionary movement]. Intelligence agencies believe that this programme began last year.
The main purpose is to help the rebel leaders “change the direction of work from going in circles to going in spirals,” notes a seven-page circular on the programme, a copy of which is with The Hindu . It throws light on the Maoists' perspective on their inability to extend the revolutionary movement in many States.
The Maoist think tank's analysis is that the rebel leaders “tend to go about their work in a routine and mechanical way with little creativity and dynamism…Many comrades rest satisfied with petty achievements and mundane activities.” While many committed leaders continue against all odds, their dedication does not bear fruit. “What is the reason for this?” asks the circular. The decision to train leaders comes in the backdrop of some worrisome developments for the Maoists. Their movement failed to take off in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Gujarat, managed by the Maoists South Western Regional Bureau (SWRB). While some important leaders were arrested, some were shot dead by security forces and the movement in Karnataka suffered a vertical split on ideological issues. “In the XYZ region [possibly a reference to SWRB] in the course of just one year we have lost over two-thirds of CCMs [Central Committee Members] to encounter killings, arrests and untimely deaths. We have also witnessed the near wipe-out of an entire State committee due a series of arrests”.
The circular says: “Our very limited mass base and our weaknesses to conceptualise the changes in the enemy's methods are leading to heavy losses.”
