were liberal-labour tactics. The Bol-sheviks' tactics on the contrary en-furej the independence of the prole-t::riat in the bourgeois crisis by fight-ing to bring that crisis to a head byexposing the treachery of liberalism,by en ightening and rallying the petty-bourgeois (especi::lly in the country-sid~) to counter ct that trea<:hery."(From The History of the Workers'Press in Russi.1.) Put the MenshevikMartov's point of view beside the'Left' anj 'Right' Communist leaders'stateme,lts, and you will 'find they arealike. Instead of making use of theinner contradictions of the bourgeoisie.the reac:ionaries, with the purpose ofundoing the entire enemy, the CPMlea:'ers are finding excuses for aligningthemselves with 'a certsin section' ofthe po-ice etc.

CorruptTlUe, the lower ranks of the police

are mostly recruted from poor fami-lies. Hunger and personal interestinduce them' to act against theirc13ss interest, and to become instru-ments in the hands of the rich. Es-pecially because of his everyday in-volvement in the bourgeois adminis-tration, the policeman has been cor-rupt, a:ways end everywhere. A fiercegreed is ingrained in him. Nowherein the history of progress has therebeen any mention of the slightest pro-gre£sive role played by 'a section' ofthe police. Even a section of thearmy, bee-use of their distance fromthe daily filth of bourgeois adminis-tration, might have a certain progres-sive possibility, but the police-never,barring a few strzy individuals.

Have the common policeman everraised his voice against the atrocitiescommi~ted in police lock-ups, at LalBazar, at Lord Sinha Road} Havethey ever refused to commit these

-oarbarities} It is true, the N::xaliteskill policemen. But why do they do itand why do they risk death in theprocess} Out of a superabundanceof joy} The purpose of all this isnot to say that whatever the Naxalitesare doing is right. On the contrarya great deal of what they are still do-ing is wrong. But the common man,

the oppressed worker 2nd peasant issure to realise with ever-increasingforce that this is but a mortal strug-gb to remove the accumulated debrisof a thousand yezrs. The commonman is sure to understand, as timepasses and events move on, that Na-xalism is, fund 2 mentally speaking,revo.utionism, and that the CPM-braJd 'Marxism' is, equally funda-menta ly, counter-revolutionary petty-bourgeois opportunism.

Andhra Pradesh

Conspiracy Case Diaries

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

DURING September-October t 970the Revolutionary Communists

operating in Warangal-Khammam dis-tricts ismed a leaflet addressed topolice personnel. After enumeratingthe job conditions of the inferiorpolice services, the leaflet pointed outthat they were no better off than themas,es: most of them were from poorpeazant and working class families;the present struggle would help themas much .:osit would their own down-trodden families and the guerillas werenot interested in killing them so longas they behaved well. The leaflet, it issaid, had a demoralising effect onthe police.

Tne morale of the officers is n:>better, for other reasons. Thoughmore men are detailed to proviaethem security than is normal theofficers as a rule do not believe inleaving the w:rmth of a rest house orcamp bungalow to chase an unseenenemy. Even if they move out dur-ing the day, by sunset they are in ahurry to get back to camp and downa few quick drinks-enough to inducesound sleep. The commies can goto he:l-seems to be the motto aftersundown.

Unfortunately, most of the valiantcommunist leaders of Srikakulamhave been despatched to hell in thecourse of "encounters". A few who

escaped the "encounters" are now injail, facnig trial in the' P:rvathipuramConspiracy Cases. The prosecutionhas filed numerous personal di:ries,papers etc. seized, from v:rious peopleas evidence. This police evicencegives the true clue to the mystery ofthe "encounters".

The first major upset for the Srika-kulam movement was the loss ofPan<:hadi Krishnamurthy, popularlyknown as PK, and six others. Thesix had gone to receive PK arrivingby train at Sompetl' railway station.They and PK were arrested and shotdead.

" ... that day. along with ComradePK. six other valuable comrades werearrested. They were ThammadaChina Babu, Bayanapalli Paparao,Donnu Gopalal R:o, Niranjana Rao,Ramachandra Pradhan and Sring:va-rapu Narsimhulu. Except Sringava-rapu N arasimhulu all the other com-rades were young revolutionaries ~gedbetween 12 and 20 years. Eventhese people were shot dead one afterano~her by the reactionary forces. Atthe time when the reaction:ry forceshad lined them up for killing, amidstthe earth-shaking slogans given out byother comrades, Comrade PK said there:ctionary forces who think they canstop the great revolutionary move-ment by shooting us, are mistaken.They cannot stop it. They cannotstop it. There is no force on earthwhich can stop your decay."

[Parvathipuram Conspiracy CaseVol X-N 12-P. 55. A cyclostyledpamphlet issued by Sompeta AreaCommittee of the CPI(ML) dated27-5-70. The handwriting is that ofAppala Swamy].

"Comr:des, on Feb 4 (t 970)Comrade Gummidi Latchayya wastaken into custody by the enemies inthe Chapara ,area. Latchayya wassubjec~ed to inhuman torture by theenemies for t 5 days. Even then,not one secret could the enemy learnfrom him, not even his name. Even-Wally, they poured pe~rol on ourvali::nt comrade and burnt him todeath."

"On 2 t - t t -69 at Mathalabpet vil-lage, Srikakulam Taluk,

Bhaskara Rao and Gan3pathi werearrested dong with two other comra-des, Sanyasi and Krishnamurthi. Thesepeople were taken away ... and with-out even a vestige of enquiry shotdead on the very next day ... But theother party, the exploiting class, csnnever speak the truth. That is why,after arresting and killing BhaskaraRao and Ganapzthi and in Srikaku-lam town itself, they spread the newsthat they were kited in an encounterat K: rasingi Hills near Tekkali ... "[We will carry on the wishes Of themar~yrs Dr Bhaskara Rao and G3Da-pathi, issued by the District Com..•mittee of the CPI(ML) and DistrictRyotsnga Samithi].

"At Engursingi on Dec. 22. 1969poli::e raid: six comrades arrested andshot dead, Subbarao Panigrahi,Ramesh Chandra Sahu, P. Nirmala,Saraswathi, Ankamma, Ummarao"[parvathipuram Conspiracy case VolX-OZ-A pocket diary maintained byDt Mallikarjunudu ·and othersl.

"On 21st (December 1969) nightI chalked out the sentry time-table.From 4 to 5-30 a.m. Ramanna andNirm:la were on duty. In the denwe were 16 inclu<iing 5 women. Asit was a wintry morning some peoplewere warming themselves near a fireand some sleeping. At about 5-458.m. poLce raided the place. We donot know what the sentry was doing.All of a sudden the police came andbeat the sentry. Some say it wasthe tribals, and some it was thepolice, entered the den. ThOse warm-ing themselves tried to run away.Awakened by the noise, even thepeople sleeping tried to get up andrun away-. that same evening webeard in the AIR local news bulletinthat Subbarao Panigrahi, RameshChandra Sahu and four others hadbeen shot dead". (ParvathipuramConspira::y Case Vol. IX M. 4. Note-book maintained by PUC AppaRao.)

Over two months after this "enco-unter", the guerilla squads were ableto arrest one of the tribals who wassuspected to have led the police tothe hideout. A people's court was

FRONTIER

he'd and the proceedings are an eye•..'openor.

" ... a People's Court with 80 villa-gers from 10 villages was held. Du-ring the proceedings, Latchanna toldus that he was bribed by the policewho gave him Rs 200, one bedsheetland one dhoti. 'I agreed to show theden. Along with me Sari Narasinga,Sucha and Yanga of Kummarikuntacame. The police and we at midnightreached Bona. At 5-30 a.m. weTaided the den. In the raid two guns,one bag of bombs, one radio, utensilswere seized. We took S.R. Pani-grahi, Ummarao, Ramesh ChandraSahu, Nirmala, Ankamma and S"ras-wathi to the 'Rungmattia hills. Theywere assed to walk in front and shotdead. Whereever they fell, two bombswere exploded. I asked them whythey were doing it. They said it wasto prove that they died in an encoun-ter' ... Latchanna was released." [Par-vathipuram Conspiracy case Vol XIS2-P. 143. A note-book of UrIamMalleswara Rao alias JaganadhaRao].

"On 14-6-70 Comrade Umapathiwas arrested. At once he was takento Uddanam llnd shot dead. Accor-ding to police circles, however seve-rely Comrade Umapathi was beatenand tortured, except the word 'MaoZindab:d' be did not utter one word,not even 'father'; 'm()~er.' (Par-vatbipuram Conspiracy Case Vol X-o I-A pocket diary maintained byDr Mallikarjunudu).

J(ianagala Krishnamurthy turnedapprover. In his statement beforeSri K. Kasal Ram LA.S., Subdivisio-nal Magistrate, Parvathipuram, hesaid, "The police version of encoun-ters is false. The Girijans usuallyhave plenty of M.L. guns. They aretaken away by police during raids.Immediately after a person is shot bythe police, one gun is placed by hisside and the story of 'encounter' isfllbricated."

"One Naxalite was killed and someothers received bullet injuries in anexchange of fire with police yester-day at Dhams3lapuram forest aboutseven miles from Yelandu" (IndianExpress: 11-8-71). This is another

typical case ot encounter. Aecord.ing to knowledgeable sources, the aC-tual fact was that a triba~BathakaYY3., was asked to pickpick a few articles whicha certain lorry driver would bring to acertain spot to be handed over to theextremists' squad in that are3. Thelorry driver turned traitor andcarried in his lorry armed police-dressed :zs labourers. When the lorrystopped at the agreed spot and Batha-kayya stepped out of the forest totake over the articles he wzs riddledwith bul:ets. It is learnt that Batha-kayya, who had still life left, refusedeven to divulge his n:me and diedwith his lips sealed. He was not evenarmed with a sitek.

This is the story of "killed in en-counters" for which more policeofficers have been awarded the Presi-dent's medal fOr gaUantry during thecourse of two years than the numberof gallant Indian army heroes awar-ded Victoria Cross during the twoworld wars. The bag of the presiden-tial awardees includes three unarmedwomen and a few boys aged less than15 years What heroism I whatgallantry I

PLACE A REGULAR ORDERFOR YOUR

FRONTIERSubscription Rate,

INLAND

Six Months Rs. 8.2SOne year Rs. 16.50FiVe Years Rs. 75.00Seven years Rs. j M.OO

Foreign AIR MAIL Rates (One Year)Europe: Rs. 120 or 15 dollllIl

Asia: Rs. 88 or 11 donarsAmerica: Rs. 168 or 21 dollars

By Surface MailAll countries: Rs. 40 or S dolla1'l

Long-term Subscriptions willhelp the weekly