Senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Tiberi Tirupati, alias Devji, who surrendered before the Telangana police last month, on Friday appealed to the state and central governments to lift the ban on the outfit and recognize it as a major political party.
Speaking to reporters of vernacular TV channels, Devji said that if the Center really wants to put an end to the armed insurgency of Maoists in the country before March 31, it should declare the CPI(M) as a legal major political party by lifting the ban on it.
“This is what we requested from Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy during our recent meeting at the state secretariat. We also requested that all arrested Maoists and their sympathizers, including so-called urban Naxalites like those arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, be declared as political prisoners and released immediately,” he said.
Devji admitted that the armed struggle of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has almost come to an end with almost all the leaders, along with cadres, laying down their arms. “If the central and state governments lift the ban on the party and recognize it as a legal political organization, we can call for the complete dissolution of the People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of the party,” he said.
He further said that once the ban is lifted, there is a possibility that all remaining leaders and cadres will come out to the mainstream. He said that once the ban is lifted, the CPI(M) like any other political party will continue to work within the framework of the Constitution.
He said, “This does not mean that we will resort to electoral politics and run in the elections for the House of Representatives or Parliament. We must educate the masses and fight for their legitimate rights within the framework of the law.”
Devji alleged that other Central Committee members like Malugula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu and Taklapalli Vasudeva Rao alias Ashana alias Rupesh had conspired to divide the CPI (Maoist) and collaborated with the police to weaken the party.
“They acted as government agents. In fact, even before our party’s general secretary Nampala Kesava Rao, alias Basvaraj, was killed by security forces for betrayal by his own security forces, Venugopal and Ashana suggested that the CPI (Maoist) withdraw the armed struggle and surrender before the government with weapons,” they said.
Devji explained that he, Malla Raje Reddy and others did not surrender to the police, but were arrested while leaving Chhattisgarh to another shelter area. “Unlike Sonu and Ashana, we did not lay down our weapons, but rather left them in the forests,” he said.
However, he said the CPI(M) has miserably failed to change its strategies as per the changing political dynamics of the country and the changing needs of the people. “We were limited to forests and Adivasis, but failed to expand to plains and urban areas, where we were supposed to build our regulatory network. By the time we realised, it was too late,” Devji added.
