Demand the Telangana government to declare a ceasefire in Telangana

Communist Party of India (Maoist)Central Committee Statement Ful Text

Condemn the Modi-Shah government’s stance of ‘we will hold peace talks with Pakistan but not with the Maoists and the Adivasis’

Demand the Telangana government to declare a ceasefire in Telangana.

On the 29th of last month, Amit Shah, who came to inaugurate the National Turmeric Board office in Nizamabad, addressed the Kisan Sammelan and said that his government will not hold talks with those who have taken up arms. He also declared that the Maoists have no other option but to surrender, and that Naxalism will be eradicated from the country by March 31, 2026. He also made a false statement that the Maoists have killed forty thousand Adivasis so far. He also blamed Congress leaders for demanding peace talks.
As soon as the BJP government came to power in Chhattisgarh, the Chief Minister there announced that they would hold talks with the Maoists. Moreover, before the Chhattisgarh elections, the BJP had announced in its manifesto that it would hold talks with the Maoists. They have gone back on their promises. Of course, Amit Shah can now dismiss it as a ‘jumla’ made by them to win the elections. That is his old habit.
However, our party had then responded that we are ready for talks keeping in mind the interests of the people. That has been our stand regardless of the strength of our party and the movement led by it. The ruling parties themselves are not ready to hold talks.
More specifically, after the Peace Talks Committee formed in Telangana called for talks in March, we responded on March 28 and announced that we are ready to hold peace talks. In order to create a suitable environment for peace talks we urged the government only to confine the security forces to camps and stop the construction of new camps. After that, we even announced a month-long unilateral ceasefire on our behalf. We are sincerely committed to it. However, the Modi-Shah’s security forces continue to surround and annihilate our party and the resistance movement that the Adivasis are continuing for their Jal-Jangal-Zamin and Self Respect. Even after we announced the ceasefire, the Chhattisgarh government has killed more than eighty-five of our party and PLGA workers, soldiers and leaders by carrying out many attacks including Operation Karreguttalu. Our party General Secretary com. Nambaalla Kesava Rao (Basava Raju) and many other leaders were surrounded and killed. Some others were caught while they were ill and receiving treatment, tortured and shot dead. Many ordinary Adivasi villagers were also captured, shot and killed and declared as Maoists. Recently, an incident of killing an ordinary Adivasi, Mahesh kudiyam, a mid-day meal cook in Irpagutta primary school has come to light. The security forces are committing such wanton killings even for the reward of crores of rupees put as a price on ‘Maoist’ heads.
Even the bodies of the dead are not being handed over properly to their family members. They are creating many obstacles in handing over the bodies and letting the bodies to rot and decompose without even preserving them. Even the minimum humanitarian values are not being followed. In this process, the Indian government and the security forces are violating many international human rights agreements for which the government is a signatory to. Along with our party’s General Secretary, com. Basava Raju, the bodies of eight other comrades including com. Nageswara Rao were not even handed over to their relatives. Com. Basava Raju’s family members were even blocked from observing the traditional rituals being celebrated at their house and imposed restrictions.
However, we have not backed down from the offer of peace talks to stop the ongoing genocide of the Adivasis and to protect them from displacement from their land and forests and their right to life.
The statement made by the Amit Shah that their government will not hold talks with those who carry weapons is also not true. Since the time of the Vajpayee government and even before that, the central government has engaged in talks with the militant parties carrying weapons in the north-eastern states. The Narendra Modi government is also continuing it even now. Why is it that it is so difficult for the government to hold talks with the Maoists when it has no difficulty in holding talks with others? The government has carried out the attacks on Pakistan, claiming that the Pakistani government was behind the attack by ‘terrorists’ in Pahalgam and yet it held peace talks with the Pakistani army and observed a ceasefire. But it is not ready to hold talks with our party. We also see the Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging Israel and Iran governments and Russian and Ukranian governments to hold talks and bring peace. But it seems that his statements do not apply to him or his government.

The fact that permission was given to cut down one lakh twenty thousand trees in Gadchiroli on the same day of the assassination of com. Basavaraj reveals the real agenda behind this ‘eradicating the Maoists’ agenda. There is a spree of announcements of implementing many MOUS signed to hand over forest land to the corporates. This is not just an agenda to destroy our party. It is an agenda to grab the lands of the Adivasis and hand them over to the corporates. It is an agenda to displace them from the forests that have been their habitat for thousands of years.

Yet, we are still ready for talks to protect these interests of the Adivasis.
Many intellectuals, democrats and rights groups in the country want peace talks to take place and are organizing many programs demanding it. As part of that, the Peace Talks Committee led by Justice Chandra Kumar and Prof. Haragopal also met the Telangana Chief Minister and asked him to observe the ceasefire in Telangana and hold peace talks. After that, they met Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi and demanded that the Telangana government declare a ceasefire and demand the central government also to do so and hold peace talks.

In Telangana, all parties except BJP are openly demanding a ceasefire and peace talks. There have been many demonstrations on the same issue in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal and other states and even internationally. However, Amit Shah is branding even those who are demanding peace talks as ‘urban Naxals’. Modi and Amit Shah have been making statements to the effect that even demanding peace and demanding that they hold talks to resolve the problem is a crime.

We welcome Congress President Mahesh Kumar Goud’s firm stad in condemning Amit Shah’s statement, and his adherence to his party’s stance that there is nothing ‘wrong with holding talks with the Maoists who are our very own citizens, when the government can hold talks even with Pakistan’. However, the Congress government in Telangana has not yet announced a ‘ceasefire’. If the state government declares a ceasefire first in Telangana it will on a higher moral pedestal to ask the Central Government and the Chhattisgarh Government for a ceasefire. Therefore, we demand that the Congress government immediately declare an official ceasefire.

We request Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to take the initiative, when he visits Telangana on 4th July, to see that his party’s government declare a ceasefire.
We also urge all the left and other parties; democratic, civil and human rights organisations and individuals and all mass organizations to continue to build movements and protests to demand the Central and State governments to declare ceasefire and hold peace talks to immediately put an end to the genocide and displacement of the Adivasis.

Abhay,
Spokesperson,
Central Committee,
CPI (Maoist)