Senior Communist Party of India (Maoist) leader Thippiri 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 acknowledge it as a mainstream political party.
Speaking to reporters of vernacular television channels, Devji said if the Centre really wanted to put an end to the armed insurgency of the Maoists in the country before March 31, it should declare the CPI (Maoist) as a lawful mainstream political party by lifting a ban on it.
“This is what we had requested Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy during our recent meeting at state secretariat. We also requested that all the arrested Maoists and sympathisers, including the so-called urban Naxalites like those arrested in Bhima Koregaon case, be declared as political prisoners and be released immediately,” he said.
Devji admitted that the armed struggle of the CPI (Maoist) had more or less 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 acknowledge it as a legal political outfit, we can call for a complete disbanding of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), the military wing of the party,” he said.
He further said once the ban was lifted, there was a possibility that all the remaining leaders and cadres would come out into the mainstream. Once the ban is lifted, the CPI (Maoist) will continue like any other political party working within the framework of the Constitution, he said.
{{/usCountry}}He further said once the ban was lifted, there was a possibility that all the remaining leaders and cadres would come out into the mainstream. Once the ban is lifted, the CPI (Maoist) will continue like any other political party working within the framework of the Constitution, he said.
{{/usCountry}}“That does not mean we shall take to electoral politics and contest the assembly or parliamentary elections. We shall educate the masses and fight for their legitimate rights within the purview of law,” he said.
Devji alleged that the other central committee members like Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu and Takkallapalli Vasudeva Rao alias Ashanna alias Rupesh had conspired to split the CPI (Maoist) and joined hands with the police to weaken the party.
“They acted as government coverts. In fact, even before our party general secretary Nambala Kesava Rao alias Basvaraj was killed by the security forces due to the betrayal by his own security forces, Venugopal and Ashanna had proposed that the CPI (Maoist) should withdraw the armed struggle and surrender before the government along with arms,” he said.
Devji clarified that he, Malla Raji Reddy and others, had not surrendered to the police, but were arrested while they were moving out of Chhattisgarh to another shelter zone. “Unlike Sonu and Ashanna, we did not lay down our arms, but left them in the forests,” he said.
He, however, said the CPI (Maoist) had badly failed to change its strategies according to the changing political dynamics in the country and the changing needs of the people. “We were confined to the forests and Adivasis, but failed to expand to the plains and urban areas, where we were supposed to build our organisational network. By the time we realised, it was too late,” Devji added.