Govt sabotaged talks with Maoists: Swami Agnivesh

Social activist Swami Agnivesh, who was trying to broker talks between the Maoists and the central government, has accused the home ministry of betraying the peace process.

Swami Agnivesh

Agnivesh was in direct touch with the CPI (Maoist) spokesman Azad and had, at the request of the government, convinced him to come to the negotiating table. But before the talks could take place, the rebel leader was killed in an encounter, which the Maoists and civil society groups alleged was fake and stage-managed.

Agnivesh said Azad was carrying his letter for peace talks when he was reportedly taken into custody along with journalist Hem Chandra Pandey. Both were later killed in an encounter by the Andhra Pradesh Police.

“It looks like a very dirty encounter. You have done vishwaasghaat (betrayal) with the talks. I am deeply pained by the developments. Yes, I suffer from a deep sense of guilt now and I believe Azad died because on your (the government’s) request, I intervened to take the peace process to its logical end,” Agnivesh said at a public meeting held to demand a judicial inquiry into the death of Azad and Pandey.

Maoist Leader Varanasi Subramanyam encircled in Delhi .. AP Police in Delhi to abduct and murder Central Committee member Varanasi Subramanyam

AP Police in Delhi to abduct and murder Central Committee member Varanasi Subramanyam

Maoist central committee leader Varanasi Subramanyam is said to have been ‘encircled’ by the police and Maoist sympathisers are fearing harm to him by the police. Virasam member Vara Vara Rao said Subramanyam alias Suraj alias Srikanth alias Sukanth was encircled by police somewhere near Delhi. "We have specific information that Subramanyam is encircled by the police though we don’t know the exact location. It is possible he is in Delhi as he operates mostly in North India,” Vara Vara Rao told Express over telephone.

Subramanyam, who hails from Prakasam, is a senior member of the Maoist party. He worked for the party at Srikakulam and also in the Singareni Karmika Sangham (Sikasa) before shifting to North India in 1986 and becoming a Central Committee member.
“Subramanyam is said to be in possession of a letter given to him by Swami Agnivesh, who is mediating between the Centre and the Maoists for talks. The letter is supposed to be handed over to Maoist secretary Ganapathi , ’ ’ Vara Vara Rao said.

After the ‘encounter’ of senior Maoist leader Azad in AP, Agnivesh met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to initiate peace talks with the Maoists after he got a cold response from Union home minister P Chidambaram.

“We fear that the police might cause harm to him.He should be produced in court ,’’ Vara Vara Rao said, adding that the PM should intervene and ensure Subramanyam’s
safety.

Indian Express

Open Letter to Swami Agnivesh from Srikant, Central Committee member of CPI(Maoist)

August 04, 2010, SOURCE: SANHATI

[The following is an open letter from Srikant, member of the Central Committee of CPI(Maoist), to Swami Agnivesh, that has reached us. Sanhati has no way to ascertain the authenticity of the letter. However, we feel that the content of the letter is significant enough that if it is genuine, it forms an important part of the ongoing civil society process, in the backdrop of Operation Green Hunt, to initiate a dialogue between the Indian government and the CPI (Maoist), with which Sanhati has been engaging since the beginning. – Ed]

Dear Swamy Agniveshji,

I have recieved your latest letter dated 22nd july. I understand your feelings about the martyrdom of Com. Azad and sincere concern for the peace process. Though I could not get the attachements which you mentioned in the letter, I followed almost all of your interviews given to print media.

Since it is not only difficult for me to send any reply to your letter, it is also not possible to send your letter to our comrades who had to decide and act on your letter ; therefore this open letter. There was no other choice for me.

The deception is continuing. The deception by Mr. Chidambaram, who ardently believes in “quiet diplomacy”. He is doing the things quietly and coolly.

He officially agreed to make you the interlocutor in the “peace talks”. You opened channels to send the proposals to us. He “quietly” and with a neatly chalked out plan entered our channels; knowing well that the communication would have to reach Com. Azad. Under the clear guidance from Chidambaram, the notorious APSIB implemented the plan. I feel that you too must have understood all this by now, but may be difficult for you to say so. I can understand that.

Chidambaram had his hands not only wet with blood of our beloved Com. Azad, but also his life partner com. Sitakka alias Padma, who was most probably shown as an encounter death in Gadchiroli on 6th July, and also journalist Hem Chandra Pandey – he could not have seen straight into your eyes and accepted for an enquiry in to this absolutely fake encounter. He knows that he was the brain behind this operation and that was why he could not have accepted this demand. Who knows like Amit Shah, who is exposed as the the main culprit in Soharabuddin case, Chidambaram too could be implicated one day, if there were to be an enquiry. Any way, he denigrated your status as an interlocutor by rejecting the most genuine demand.

Your letter dated 26th of June reached Com Azad, just before 30th. The APSIB, which had already entered into the mechanism, knew this. They knew that they could scuttle the process by eliminating Com. Azad. With that purpose only, they entered through the channels you had opened to send your letters to us. We fell prey to this great deception by Chidambaram.

We feel that you are being used as a pawn in the whole process. Sorry for the straight talk!!

Please ask Mr Chidambaram one question. What is that the APSIB has been doing in many states outside Andhra Pradesh? In UP, West Bengal, In Delhi, so on and so forth? Are they functioning without his knowledge ? Does he not know that it is the APSIB team that had arrested Com. Kobad Gandhy and put him under illegal custody for three days and on 20th septemeber he was given to Delhi Police ? Shall I inform you the list of the personnel of APSIB who arrested Com Kobad Gandhy; and who headed that team? May be it will be a small addition to the Wikileaks, and can be a scoop to the media.

The point is again the deception. He is talking of langauge of “peace”. He is planning cold blooded murders with his trusted APSIB.

Now that you have given another letter to our CC, appealing to take the further the peace process that was started.

Your letter dated 22nd July reached me. Not just the letter. Some thing more too. The APSIB too reached me. How can we understand this phenomenon? I just escaped very narrowly, on August 1st. If we can meet some time later, like we met on the dias of Karimnagar Peasant Labour Association meeeting in 1983, where we addressed the gathering along with others, (You paid rich tributes to Com. Haribhushan who was killed by the then NTR regime), I can give you the details. Had I gone into the hands of this notorious Indian Mossad, your 22nd letter must have gone back to Chidambaram, perhaps with some blood marks on it, like the way your 26th letter reached him. We do not have any iota of doubts in your genuine feelings regarding the peace process. I am afraid that you are pigeon among the cats. The cats are using you to catch us in this process.

The APSIB encircled me and for the time being I am out of it. In these circumstances it is difficult for me to send any reply to you through some channels or send your letter to our comrades. I request you to openly publish your letters in the papers. Any channel if you try to send through, it might end up in some loss. I think we can no more afford that.

Chidamabaram will continue to play the unfair game. He has already claimed the lives of our beloved comrades along with life of a journalist.

Our comrades will reply to you on your proposals, if you can publish your letters through media. The 26th June letter and the present one, since the 26th June letter has not reached our comrades. Since they are written by you, it is your prerogative to publish openly or not. May be you have to go against Chidambaram by not doing these things “quietly”. He is sticking upto his programme by doing “quietly”.

Your lofty concerns and well meaning efforts are torpedoed by Chidambaram with his dirty tricks. He might have scuttled the peace process by killing Com. Azad. Can he stop the revolution? The history of Hitler is before us.

I stated hard facts.

with warm regards,
Srikant a.k.a Sukant
Central Committee Member,
CPI(Maoist)
August 3rd

A Report on The Public Meeting in Delhi on 3 August Demanding Judicial Inquiry into the Killing of Azad, the Spokesperson and Polit Bureau member of the CPI ( Maoist) along with Journalist Hem Chandra Pandey

2 PM, 3RD AUGUST 2010, RAJENDRA BHAVAN, DEEN DAYAL UPADHYAY MARG, NEW DELHI

The Public Meeting to demand the judicial enquiry into the killings of Azad, the spokesperson and Polit Bureau member of the CPI (Maoist) along with journalist Hem Chandra Pandey at Rajendra Bhavan, New Delhi was addressed by a large number of prominent citizens in the presence of packed auditorium.

Dr. B D Sharma, former National Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Tribes of Government of India chaired the public meeting and started the proceedings of the meeting by calling upon the audience to observe one minute’s silence in commemoration of Azad and Hem Chandra Pandey. Dr Anup Saraya a well-known doctor and democratic rights activist convened the meeting to start it proceedings.

G N Saibaba, conducting the meeting for the Chair told the audience that when he was killed, Azad was in the process of preparing the ground for talks on behalf of his party with the Government of India through Swami Agnivesh. In the manner and at the juncture in which he along with Hem Pandey has been killed has triggered a public uproar, and there is a strong demand to institute a judicial investigation into the circumstances of the killing of Azad and Hem Pandey.

Prof. Haragopal, Professor Emeritus, University of Hyderabad condoling the killings stated that a leading revolutionary of the country has been killed when Azad was carrying a message to the leadership about the final details of the proposed talks. Azad’s letter in response to the proposal for a dialogue clearly states that his party was more than willing to come to the discussion table, a party which is fighting to make our society a more humane one. The Indian government is asked by the people of India why Azad was killed when he was carrying a message of peace. The paradox of our times is that those who are talking of peace are pursuing war and those who are purported to be at war with the Indian state are more committed to peace. He then shared the experiences of talks between the government of Andhra Pradesh and CPI(ML) (People War) and Janashakti, stating that he felt the same guilt that Swami Agnivesh is now feeling for the killing of many Naxalites involved in the process of a dialogue which failed ultimately in 2004. Prof Haragopal further stated that the government has repeatedly betrayed the hopes generated by the peace loving masses of the country by repeatedly betraying the process of talks.

Releasing the memorial booklet on Azad by the ‘Friends of Azad’