CIA reveals High Treason by India Communist Party - Will Jyoti Basu, Prakash Karat respond ? --:by yossarin:--

HK Surjeet influenced by Russia to setup an underground organization. CPI did proceed to recruit a secret organization within the Indian Army. China Russia insisted that the CPI must develop a standby apparatus capable of armed resistance, while intensifying penetration of Indian Military forces. With the PLA now present along the Indian Border the Indian Party had a channel of support for Armed Operations and a potential liberator in the event of mass uprisings - 13 Sept 1959 Four powerful radio sets had been installed in the office of the China Review in Calcutta to listen to broadcasts from Peking. Chinese Financial Subsidies to sections of the CPI particularly the left faction strongholds in West Bengal. A foreign supply base was now available for the underground organizations with Chinese occupation of Tibet and other frontier areas. Letter asking for collaboration in Indian underground organization work aimed at an eventual revolution, because China has a border with India and can provide arms and supplies. Also Jaipal Singh, head of the illegal organization within the Indian Army decided to reactivate his organization in May 1961 following the hard left faction gaining control of the party. The CIA on 26th June, 2007, released a collection of declassified analytic monographs and reference aids, designated within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Intelligence (DI) as the CAESAR, ESAU, and POLO series, highlights the CIA’s efforts from the 1950s through the mid-1970s to pursue in-depth research on Soviet and Chinese internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations. Of particular interest to India is a 3 part series on the border dispute with China but more juicy document is 12 MB dossier on the Indian Communist Party, this should stir up politics in India at a time when the Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi lead Congress has accorded unprecedented leverage to the Communists who are celebrating 30 years of rule in Bengal. Offstumped has reviewed the documents and was amazed to learn the extent to which the Communists looked for direction from Russia and China, sought support and approval and pretty much sub-ordinated national interest at the altar of a dubious ideology and subservience to the Chinese. Below are a few highlights: First we turn our focus to the border dispute with China to get a sense of Nehru’s naivety in his approach to dealing with the Chinese. Nehru believed China’s Communist Leaders were amenable to Gentlemanly persuasion Nehru’s strategy was defensive and he believed strengthening Indian Economy to resist a Chinese Military Attack was adequate. China’s short term policy was not to alert Nehru on the wide gap between Chinese and Indian claims on border and hence they lied about Chinese maps. Chinese leaders recognized that India neither by temperament nor by capability was a Military threat. China’s strategy was to use diplomatic channels to cut out Indian press, public and parliament. It was a 5 year masterpiece in guile. It played on Nehru’s Asian anti-imperialist mental attitude his proclivity to temporize and his sincerity for peace with China. What China conceded with the Left Hand it retrieved with the Right Hand. Had it not been Nehru but a more military minded man who was Prime Minister in Oct 1959, a priority program to prepare India to eventually fight would have been started. The 3 part series goes into excruciating detail on the series of events on this dispute. Expect more from Offstumped on this in later posts. Now we turn attention to the dossier on the Indian Communist Parties. The dossier runs into all of 185 pages. Its focus was on the split within the Indian Communist Parties into Pro-Soviet and Pro-Chinese factions. While recounting the sequence of events drawing from many sources including a book by Minoo Masani. A good portion of the dossier is dedicated to the CPI post Independence under Ranadive with his Pro-Soviet approach and his differences with the Telangana section of the party which was toeing the Maoist line. The dossier notes the April 1957 election win of the CPI in Kerala as the first such development in history were a Communist Party attained power through an election. It then notes that, in July 1957 through a reliable source that EMS Namboodaripad was asked by the Soviets to forward a full report to Moscow on the methods used to attain power via elections. Another juicy detail implicates Harikishen Singh Surjit and others on working with the Soviet Communists to setup an underground party. In Feb 1958 an official of the Soviet Embassy contacted CPI Leaders to renew the request to setup an underground organization. While AjoY Ghosh refused, HK Surjeet and others privately decided that Ghosh was taking a complacent line and decided to reach out to the CPSU outside of party channels. Here is where things get murky: The CPI did proceed to recruit a secret organization within the Indian Army. Subsequent events saw the beginning of the tilt of the hard left faction of the CPI towards China. The dossier quotes Basavapunniah a CPI leader. The real source of inspiration for the CPI should be Communist China, and he planned to talk to Chinese Leaders as a Disciple talks to his teachers. Some more murky details of how China and Russia influenced the CPI to setup a parallel state apparatus: In February 1959, Ajoy Ghosh in his report to the Central Executive Committee that China Russia insisted that the CPI must develop a standby apparatus capable of armed resistance, while intensifying penetration of Indian Military forces. After the Nehru Government dismissed the Kerala Communist Government on July 31 1959 there was further movement within the Party to revive its illegal activities. From 6 to 8 August 1959 hard leftists urged a revival of CPI illegal apparatus to be run from the party secretariat. More Murky Details of CPI supporting China during the Tibetan invasion: In April 1959 Ranadive met with the Chinese Ambassador during which he offered CPI’s support to China on Tibet, and advised China to concentrate its attacks on rightist Anti-Chinese Indian leaders. Further in August in a letter to the Chinese Communist Party drafted by Ajay Ghosh and Ranadive the CPI urged the Chinese to single out particularly the Praja Socialist Party and the Jan Sangh for attack as suggested in the April meeting with the Ambassador. More evidence of the sedition and treasonous role played by the hard left of the CPI In the September Central Executive Committee meeting Ajoy Ghosh argued against the tendency to welcome chinese military presence on Indian borders to justify a new militant line for the CPI. This was rejected by the hard left who argued that with the PLA now present along the Indian Border the Indian Party had a channel of support for Armed Operations and a potential liberator in the event of mass uprisings. The CIA reports that this line was repeated multiple times. It was first reported on 13 Sept 1959 by Basavapunniah, Ranadive, Jaipal Singh head of secret illegal apparatus. However the dossier gets interesting as it moves to the 1960s closer to the formal split in the party.

An interesting aspect of the split: In 1960 the West Bengal faction of the Communist Party passed a resolution criticizing the conduct of the Soviet Communist Party and Khrushchev by name while supporting the Chinese Communist Party. The CIA calls definitely the only such resolution to have ever been passed by any Communist Party in the whole world. The year 1960 ended with this faction of the CPI continuing to report to the Chinese Party and to receive guidance from it Ajoy Ghosh also reported to the Central Executive that during his Peking visit Mao had revealed that China wished to exercise more control on Communist Parties in Asia. The most concentrated of these Communist Activities were to be in West Bengal . Evidence of Chinese Influence in the growth of Communist Party in West Bengal: A new Chinese Party consul in Calcutta in Sept of 1960 held several meetings with members of the West Bengal party. Four powerful radio sets had been installed in the office of the China Review in Calcutta to listen to broadcasts from Peking handouts were given based on these broadcasts for propaganda work.The CIA also reports of indications from 1959 of Chinese Financial Subsidies to sections of the CPI particularly the left faction strongholds in West Bengal Basavapunniah also reports to two CPI Leaders later on that a foreign supply base was now available for the underground organizations with Chinese occupation of Tibet and other frontier areas In Sept 1960 the first evidence of a vertical split in the CPI became evident with the hard left faction comprising Jyoti Basu, Harikishen Singh Surjit, Basavapunniah, Sundarayya and Ranadive supporting the Chinese position on the Indo-Sino border dispute. Earlier in August further murky evidence of the hard left seeking chinese support in a written letter,asking for collaboration in Indian underground organization work aimed at an eventual revolution, because China has a border with India and can provide arms and supplies Finally more evidence of anti-national stance of the Jyoti Basu lead West Bengal faction When Z.A. Ahmed indicated that the Party should take a nationalist stand on Chinese incursions to India, he was severely berated by the West Bengal faction Offstumped Bottomline: The Communists Party of the present day must come clean on their murky past. Especially on the anti-national positions taken by the West Bengal faction while bowing to diktats from China. The Manmohan Singh Government must probe past acts of treason and prosecute those amongst the present party who participated in these acts of treason.

Comments: Mr.D. Bose

First, You have failed to differentiate between those who have supported China (now in the CPI(M)) and those who have refused to support China(those who are in the CPI).There is a vast difference between these two factions.In 1960 China had expelled all Soviet Consulates because Mao had complained that Khruschev had ploted a coup against him. That was the end of Soviei-Cinese affairs.Since then, in fact since 1955 the Soviet Union did everything it can for India: to develop industries, support India internationally, defending India against Pak-Chinese-US attack in 1971; supplying every type of weapons, nuclear power, missiles, rockets—infact everything came from the Soviet Union , nothing from the west to develop India.Thus, one should not trust CIA report because these were created, just like Mithokhin File was created by the British Secret Service, to fool Indians against Russia.China is a different matter. CPI(M) and Naxals are for China—of course they are against India’s interests.In the old CPI before it was divided up in 1964, Ranadive, Basanpuniya, Satya Murthi, Nambudripad were Pro-Chinese. They were in jail during the Chinese invasion in 1962.Ajoy Ghosh, Hiren Mukherjee, Somnath Lahiri, Bupesh Gupta, Dange were pro-Soviet. They have organised protests marches against China in 1962 as the Soviet Union also criticized China on 7th November and started sending Mig-20 and Tu tanks to India immediately after the Chinese invasion. India could have got all these before the invasion, but Morarji Desai refused to sanction money. Morarji Desai was a CIA agent, named by Seymour Hearst of the New York Times.CIA, MI6, MI5 often plants misinformation.

Mr.R Narayanan Says:

The formation of the Communist ministry in Kerala drew the attention of US imperialism which had embarked on a cold war against communism. The US secretary of state, John Foster Dulles said at a press conference in September 1957 “Local election victories by Communists in India and Indonesia are a dangerous trend. It is a dangerous trend whenever Communists move towards political control”. The subsequent development which led to the so-called liberation struggle against Communist rule found ready support from the United States of America. That the United States provided funds to the Congress leadership for the struggle to topple the Communist ministry were confirmed later. A later American ambassador to India, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his memoir, confirmed that the CIA gave money to the Congress leadership on two occasions to fight the Communists – the first time for Kerala during the first Communist ministry and a second time in the sixties for West Bengal.

Mr.R Narayanan Says:

The way the Communist movement is being rejuvenated after the retreating from Socialism in the Soviet Union and East European people’s democracies is instructive: the world communist movement of the old days has become irrelevant. The Chinese Communist party has made it clear that the socialism that they are building is with China’s national characteristics. Indian communists, can modestly claim that, as early as 45 years ago (in 1951) the then undivided Communist Party of India had declared that it would follow neither the Soviet nor the Chinese path, but would evolve its own Indian path of socialism. It today’s world situation therefore, Marxist-Leninists in every country will have to evolve their nationally suitable path to Socialism and communism. That is why the get-together of International Marxist-Leninists in Calcutta in 1993 was called an International seminar, rather than an International conference. Each national Marxist-Leninist Party has to work out its own specific path of socialist revolution and construction without depending on a centralised world leadership, but, by firmly adhering to the revolutionary tenets of Marxism-Leninism. However, since all nationally based Marxist-Leninist parties are closely tied by the bond of fraternal solidarity with their counterparts in all other countries, it is necessary to have constant exchange of experience and views among the various national contingents of the world communist movement. This is the lesson that CPI(M) have learnt from decades of experience of Marxism of the imperialist era which took shape in the early years of this century.

Mr.R Narayanan Says:

The Communist Party inherited the progressive, anti-imperialist and revolutionary traditions of the Indian people. Since its formation in 1920, by a small group of determined anti-imperialist fighters inspired by the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the Party had set before itself the goal of fighting for complete independence and basic social transformation. The Party pledged to work for the establishment of a socialist society in India, free from class exploitation and social oppression. True to the cause of proletarian internationalism, the Party consistently supported the national liberation movements against the imperialist order and the struggles for democracy and socialism the world over, which were major features of the twentieth century. The Party adopted the principles of Marxism-Leninism as the guide to action for winning national independence, to attain the objective of socialism and to advance towards the ultimate goal of communism. The Communists were the first in the country to raise the demand for complete independence and put forward a resolution for this in the Ahmedabad session of the Indian National Congress in 1921. The Communists, while demanding complete independence, also stressed the need for giving a radical content to the slogan of swaraj through a definite programme for social and economic change by including such vital questions as abolition of landlordism, end to feudal domination and elimination of caste oppression. The Communists while participating in the freedom struggle, from the outset, devoted their energies to the task of organising workers in trade unions, peasants in the Kisan Sabha, students in their unions and other sections in their respective mass organisations. It was due to these efforts that national organisations like the All India Kisan Sabha and the All India Students Federation (SFI) were founded and the All India Trade Union Congress strengthened. The Communists took the initiative in founding progressive, cultural and literary organisations like the Progressive Writers’ Association and the Indian People’s Theatre Association. The British rulers were determined to stamp out communism in India. They unleashed brutal repression on the fledgling Communist groups and banned communist literature to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas. They conducted a series of conspiracy cases against the young leadership of the communist movement — Peshawar (1922); Kanpur (1924) and Meerut (1929). The Party was declared illegal soon after its formation in the 1920s and had to work in conditions of illegality for over two decades. Inspite of severe repression, the Party made steady progress in mobilising people for complete independence and for fundamental social change. The militant and consistent anti-imperialist stand of the Communist Party attracted the various revolutionary currents and fighters to join the Party. Among them were the Ghadar heroes of Punjab, the colleagues of Bhagat Singh, the revolutionaries of Bengal, the militant working class fighters of Bombay and Madras presidencies, and the radical anti-imperialist Congressmen from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the country. Thus the Party was enriched by the entry of the best fighters from all over the country. The Communist Party while working in close cooperation with the independence movement led by the Indian National Congress and later the Congress Socialist Party, consistently worked for building and strengthening itself as an independent party of the proletariat. The post Second World War period saw the powerful anti-imperialist and anti-feudal upsurge of the Indian people. The Communist Party was in the forefront leading this upsurge in various parts of the country. Such significant struggles were those of Tebhaga, Punnapra Vayalar, North Malabar, the Warli adivasis, Tripura tribal people and above all the historic Telangana peasants’ armed struggle. The Communist Party also played a leading role in the people’s movements for responsible government in many princely states. The Party played an active role in organising and supporting the liberation struggles in the French and Portuguese enclaves of Pondicherry and Goa. The wave of struggles by workers, peasants and students and the demand for release of INA prisoners saw a new peak in the Naval Mutiny of 1946. In the international background of the defeat of fascism and the mounting tide of national liberation movements, faced with this popular upheaval, British imperialism and the leaders of the major bourgeois parties — the Congress and the Muslim League — struck a compromise. As a result, the country was partitioned and India and Pakistan as independent states under the leadership of the bourgeois-landlord classes came into existence. The fact that the national movement was under the leadership of the bourgeoisie helped this compromise. Thus, the stage of general national united front chiefly directed against foreign imperialist rule came to an end. The Communist Party continued to face repression even after the country achieved independence. The fierce attacks by the Congress rulers between 1948 and 1952, particularly in Telangana, and the repeated bouts of repression, especially the period of semi-fascist terror in West Bengal, and later in Tripura, and the murderous attacks against the Party cadres in Kerala and in different parts of the country could not deter the Party from carrying forward the revolutionary movement. The Party was in the forefront of the struggle to defend the unity of the people when threats arose to national unity in the form of disruptive separatist movements. Hundreds of courageous Party activists sacrificed their lives in the struggle against the separatist and divisive forces in Punjab, Tripura, Assam, West Bengal and Kashmir. The Communist movement has thus played a progressive role in Indian politics since its inception. With its mass base, popular appeal and its alternative policies to the bourgeois-landlord regime, the Communist movement is a significant force in the country’s political and social life. The first Communist ministry in Kerala formed in 1957 and later the succession of CPI(M) and Left-led governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura showed the way by striving to implement pro-people policies. These governments implemented land reforms within the existing framework, decentralised powers and revitalised the panchayat system, ensured democratic rights for the working people and strengthened the democratic forces in the country struggling for alternative policies. In the course of arduous struggles, the Party registered substantial achievements. As a Party committed to self-critical analysis of its successes and failures, the Party consistently strives to learn from its mistakes and improve its capacity to apply Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of our society. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was formed after a prolonged struggle against revisionism. It adopted the Party programme in 1964 and subsequently defended the strategy and tactics based on this understanding from both revisionism and dogmatism. The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed major reverses for the Soviet Union and other socialist countries and the world communist movement. This has necessitated a reappraisal of the international developments and the experiences of the movement. Major changes and developments have taken place in our country during the half-century after independence. The CPI(M) has reviewed these developments and experiences since 1964 to update its programme. The CPI(M) presents before the Indian people the strategic objective to be achieved by the revolutionary forces in the present stage of the revolutionary movement. The Party sets out a programme which will guide the workers, peasants, all sections of the working people and the progressive, democratic forces in their fight against the ruling classes to achieve People’s Democracy as a step towards the goal of a socialist society.