Betrayal by courier led to Kobad Ghandy’s arrest: CPI-Maoist

HYDERABAD: The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) Tuesday claimed that its London-educated leader and ideologue Kobad Ghandy was betrayed by his courier, leading to his arrest in New Delhi Sep 17.While admitting that the arrest of the politburo and central committee member was a big loss to the Maoist movement in the country, the Maoist outfit said it was only a temporary success for the authorities.”Comrade Kobad Ghandy was betrayed by his courier who led the SIB from AP (Special Intelligence Bureau of Andhra Pradesh police) and the intelligence wing in Delhi to the appointment spot in Bhikaji Cama Place in South Delhi,” said a statement by CPI-Maoist sent to IANS.This is the first reaction by the Maoist outfit to the arrest of the 63-year-old Ghandy, who was in-charge of expanding the party in urban areas and played a crucial role in getting international recognition for the party.

“Kobad Ghandy had just returned from a trip to the guerrilla zone.

His arrest is being touted as a big success for the intelligence officials while it was actually a result of the betrayal by a weak element in the party who was acting as his courier,” said the statement signed by Azad, the spokesperson of the outfit’s central committee.The central committee appealed to democratic forces to fight against the “heinous attempts of the reactionary rulers to implicate Ghandy in false cases, to conduct narco tests and to mentally harass him”.Azad alleged that Ghandy was arrested Sep 17 but the arrest was showed only Sep 21.

“The reactionary rulers were elated by this temporary success and the wily Chidambaram had congratulated the intelligence agencies for the prize catch. Like true heirs to George Bush, these state terrorists have stepped up their propaganda that the Maoists and the Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy are terrorists.””The reactionary rulers churn out numbers to show how thousands have become victims of Maoist violence.

But the fact is that while the Maoists had punished only the repressive forces of the state, the anti-people feudal forces and the police agents, it is the police, paramilitary forces and the armed vigilante gangs like Salwa Judum that are continuously carrying out a mass a murder campaign completely destroying over 800 tribal villages, murdering over 500 adivasis and raping over a hundred adivasi women in Dantewada and Bijapur districts alone,” the statement said.

“The story is similar in Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal’s Lalgarh and other areas such as Orissa, Maharashtra and so on,” it added.It said Ghandy hailed from a rich, elitist background but had abandoned everything and mingled with the oppressed masses serving them selflessly for almost four decades.Calling Ghandy a “role model to be emulated by the new generation of youth”, the statement said he had organised revolutionary activities in Maharashtra during the 1970s and became a member of the central committee of the erstwhile Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (Peoples War) in 1981.

He continued as member of the central committee of the merged CPI-Maoist in 2004 and was elected to the politburo after the unity Congress in February 2007. He played a crucial role in bringing out the party publications in English and was also looking after the sub-committee on mass organisations set up by the central committee besides other work.