Odisha rebel leader Panda hits back at Maoist leadership

Odisha's top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who was expelled from Communist Party of India (Maoist) by its central committee, has hit back at the leadership accusing it of being anti-tribal, anti-minorities and anti-people.

Odisha's top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who was expelled from Communist Party of India (Maoist) by its central committee, has hit back at the leadership accusing it of being anti-tribal, anti-minorities and anti-people.

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"The CPI (Maoist) has perpetrated mindless violence. They have killed ordinary people and activists and workers from leftist organisations like CPI (ML), SUCI and CITU without any justification. I have been critical of their politics of murder," Panda, who till recently was the secretary of Odisha State Organising Secretary of CPI (Maoist), said in an audio tape released to media on Sunday night.

The rebel leader, who hit national headlines after abducting two Italian citizens from Kandhamal district on March 14, alleged Maoist leaders were collecting huge amount of funds from corporate people, who were displacing poor from their land, despite a party decision not to seek such funds.

Blaming a powerful section of CPI (Maoist), especially those from Andhra Pradesh, for the spread of politics of terror, Panda said he had severed ties with the CPI (Maoist) for the past seven months and formed a new organisation, Odisha Maovadi Party, to fight for the cause of the downtrodden in Kandhamal, Ganjam, Gajapati and Rayagada districts. "We cannot serve as slaves in a party that denies internal democracy and works against the interest of common people. The CPI (Maoist) is doomed unless it corrects itself," said Panda.

In a press release to the media on Friday, CPI (Maoist) had expelled Panda for his alleged anti-party activities. He was called a "renegade", "revisionist" and collaborator of the ruling class. The party decision to expel him came in response to a 16-page letter to the central leadership in which he alleged party secretary general Ganapathi of wishing to "establish a dictatorship based on terror and fear".

Panda also alleged in the letter that tribals were exploited most by the Maoist and tribal women were sexually exploited by them.