Maoists in scholarly pursuits in jail
Jailed Maoist central committee members are improving their vocabulary and reading books of nationalist leaders between spells of interrogation and other routine functions in prison.
Jailed Maoist central committee members are improving their vocabulary and reading books of nationalist leaders between spells of interrogation and other routine functions in prison. Jawaharlal Nehru and martyr Bhagat Singh are some of the authors they are spending their time on.
"Top Maoist leaders are well-educated and voracious readers," said a top prison source.
Three Central Committee members — Varanasi Subramanium, Vijay Kumar Arya and Pulendu Mukherjee — were nabbed in Katihar district, bordering West Bengal, during the panchayat elections in May.
Subramanium, who has been a member of the central committee since 2001 and headed the international propaganda wing of the CPI(Maoist) since the arrest of politburo member Kobad Ghandy, has opted for Nehru’s "Glimpses of World History", besides "Bhagat Singh key gumshuda patra", written by Brahmeshwar Dayal and "Desh key nirmaata", by Biswanath Sharma.
Arya, also a central committee member and chairman of the national-level mass committee of the outfit, wants to write all he has experienced and is reading Bhagat Singh.
Mukherjee, 70, likes literature — Tamil, Bengali, Hindi and English — apart from dictionaries.
Jail superintendent Jitendra Kumar said, "They have requisitioned several books and some more have been purchased for them on their request."
Umesh Yadav, who was nabbed with Central Committee members, is reading "Bharat ke mahaan krantikari", by Sahil Srivastava.
Though the rebels have also been given newspapers and periodicals of their choice, news of extremist activities is hidden from them, sources told HT.
