“Now is not the time to be sad, comrades, it's time to stand up like fire!”
(Charu MAZUMDAR)
On May 21, we learned with great anger that our sister party, Communist Party of India (Maoist) General Secretary Basavaraj (Nambala Keshav Rao) and 26 Maoist people's fighters were massacred in a clash between the Maoists and the fascist Indian state in the countryside of Abujhmad in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
In the spirit of international solidarity, we extend our sincere condolences to the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist), party members and militants, the valiant commanders and fighters of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) and of course to all the oppressed working people of India, especially the working class and the poor Adivasi peasants.
We are aware of the void created by the loss of Comrade Basavaraj and 26 Maoist people's fighters. However, we also realize and believe that the Indian People's War, the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist red torch of South Asia, is capable of achieving victory by healing the wounds, filling the void and embracing the struggle more firmly. Chairman Mao said, “We communists are like seeds and the people are like soil. Wherever we go, we must unite with the people there, take root and blossom among the people.” The revolutionary war of the CPI (Maoist) and the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, the vanguard and leading force of the struggle for New Democratic Revolution, Socialism and Communism in the geography of the world called India, has ensured that the seed of communism sown by the communists in these lands has taken root and grown and developed among the masses. Comrade Basavaraj is undoubtedly one of the most important cadres of this struggle. He dedicated his 50 years of struggle to the liberation struggle of the Indian working class, peasants, students, women and all oppressed toiling masses. With his revolutionary practice, in which he was involved with Marxist-Leninist-Maoist consciousness and communist labor, he won the deep love of the masses and became the enemy's fearful dream.
As the flames of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution swept across the world, India was one of the steppes ignited by this fire. In this geography where anger, rebellion and resistance against imperialism and its local henchmen, the comprador capitalists and feudal landlords, was brewing, a communist movement had emerged in the midst of the Naxalbari peasant resistance in the 70s. The seeds of communism sown under the leadership of Comrade Charu Mazumdar flourished, the People's War progressed with victories and defeats in the intervening decades, and became the hope of the masses under the leadership of the Communist Party. This struggle has created, nurtured and developed its own sons and daughters. Comrade Basavaraj, wearing the legacy of Tsaru Mazumdar, bathed and steeled himself in the fiery fire of the communist struggle.
Thousands of supporters, militants, fighters and party members, dozens of CC members have been immortalized in the more than 50-year history of the Indian People's War. Comrade Basaravaju was one of those who dedicated his life to the struggle for the liberation of humanity. However, the leadership mission he assumed within the party and the war increased the weight of the void he created. On May 21, the sound of bullets echoing through the forests of Abu Dharm was not just the targeting of a man, but of a revolutionary tradition rooted in the bosom of the people. Comrade Basaravaju was a devoted student of the MLM, an indomitable teacher of the masses, an outstanding leader of the Maoist party, a vanguard commander of the people's war.
He started his revolutionary life as a student in his 20s and continued his revolutionary life with a communist identity by organizing in the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (People's War), which was founded in 1980. Comrade Basavaraj, who developed himself in a short time, became a Party CC member. At the same time, he played an active role in the development of the war as the secretary of the Central Military Commission of the CPI (ML) (People's War). In 1987, Basavaraj received military training from the Tamil Tigers and throughout his life of struggle, he made great efforts in the military-tactical development of the People's War, especially in the creative implementation of the war strategy. At the same time, he became the enemy's fearful dream with the actions he organized and inflicted great losses on the enemy.
Comrade Basavaraj was re-elected to the Central Committee in 2004 at the Unity Congress of the Maoist Communist Center of India (Maoist Communist Party of India). He continued to work as a member of the SB and again as the secretary of the Military Commission in the appointments made within the CC. In 2018, he was elected General Secretary by the CC after Comrade Ganapathy, General Secretary of the CC (Maoist), resigned due to health problems. Comrade Basavaraj, who duly fulfilled this duty until the date of his immortalization, left a great legacy to both the Maoists waging the Indian People's War and the International Communist Movement, together with the 26 Maoist people's fighters who were immortalized with him.
Comrade Basavaraj was a leader who knew how to establish a dialectical link between revolutionary theory and practice. He was a communist who knew how to apply Mao Zedong's People's War Strategy to the specific conditions of India, igniting the fire of hope in the hearts of millions of oppressed. His role in organizing poor peasants, Adivasis, workers and all the oppressed in a vast geography from Telangana to Odisha, from Andhra Pradesh to Calcutta, from Bastar to Jharkhand and bringing them into the armed struggle is of historical importance. The line Basavaraj represents is the line of the People's War based on the people's own power and not on parliamentary dreams.
The Massacres of the Fascist Indian State Will Not Prevent the Victory March of the Indian People's War, the People's War Will Win!
In India, where inequality in income distribution is appalling, exploitation is brutal, poverty, hunger, deprivation and held back are at their darkest, there is a communist movement that is developing and gaining strength, that is emerging among the masses, that is rooting out all this and fighting for a world without exploitation and without borders. As oppression and persecution grows, there are millions of masses turning their faces to the hope of liberation. This increases the fears of the rullers. As the masses' own self-management apparatus under the leadership of the CPI (Maoist) in the guerrilla base areas shakes their authority, their fear grows and their power cracks. That is why they attack the People's War with the bloodiest and most brutal methods, organize massive operations to destroy the vanguards and leaders of the people, massacre, arrest and intimidate the masses. Over the last 20 years, they have carried out extensive extermination attacks, saying “We will eradicate Maoism from India”. “Operation Green Hunt” in 2010, ‘Operation Samadhan’ between 2017 and 2020 and finally ‘Operation Kagaar’ since 2023 have the common aim of destroying the Maoist Movement as a whole, eliminating the revolutionary movement and protecting the interests of their imperialist masters in India and maintaining the plunder order as they want.
The Indian ruling classes, which mobilized tens of thousands of armed forces for “Operation Kagaar”, are also plundering the lands of the poor Adivasi peasants in the area where they carry out the operation and are attempting to open mining sites for imperialist monopolies. In other words, while Operation Kagaar is targeting the CPI (Maoist), which is vanguarding and leading the revolution that will radically overthrow their power, it is also being carried out to plunder the living spaces of the masses for the sake of rent. Finally, the operation in which comrade Basavaraj and 26 Maoists were massacred was carried out for the sake of these ambitions. Fascist Prime Minister Modi, who appeared in front of the cameras with great shouts of joy after the massacre attack, screamed, “We will erase Maoism from India by May 26, 2026”. However, history has proven and will continue to prove that their ambitions will fail today and tomorrow as they did yesterday. On the contrary, the Maoist People's War will continue to grow against all their attacks and will achieve victory. Because comrade Basavaraj's revolutionary practice has been part of a labor that has led to the training of thousands of militant fighters and the hope and taking up the People's War by tens of thousands of masses. The revolution does not end when it loses its leaders, on the contrary, the blood of the leaders spilled on the ground becomes the lifeblood that grows the struggle. The revolution is integrated with the masses and is developing. The power of the rulers is not enough to eradicate this root. Because this war is the struggle to break the shackles of the Adivasis who want to protect their land, the mothers who cannot buy medicine for their children, the peasants who cannot get the rewards of their labor in their fields, the workers who have difficulty surviving in the wheel of intense exploitation, the laborers who have sacrificed their youth to unemployment, the youth whose future has been stolen, the women who are shackled by feudal value judgments.
Comrade Basavaraj is no longer with us. But his revolutionary legacy will live on in our struggle. His discipline in every mass work in India, his tactics in every guerrilla raid, his revolutionary spirit and communist practice in every guerrilla unit will continue to live on. Not only in India but in all the fields of struggle of the International Proletariat, the war will continue in his place and the struggle for which he longed and for which he gave his life will be crowned with victory.
Today, our duty is not to mourn, but to add our anger to the mortar of the revolution, to increase our struggle, to tighten our ranks. Each of us must take one step forward after him, one step forward in the positions of the People's War.
We, as TKP/ML, will embrace the faith, aspirations and ideals of Comrade Basavaraj and 26 people's fighters in the People's War we wage as TKP/ML, and we will fire every bullet we direct against the enemy with the consciousness of accountability.
We call on communists and revolutionaries, progressives and anti-imperialists, the International proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world to stand in solidarity during this difficult but honorable period of the Indian People's War.
With our heads held high, our fists clenched, our consciousness clear and our practice strong, we bow respectfully in front of Comrade Basavaraj and the 26 Maoist people's fighters who were murdered and we say; The reactionary ruling classes in India will lose, the People's War will win!
Comrade Basavaraj is Immortal!
The 27 murdered Communist Fighters will live in the People's War!
Long Live the CPI (Maoist) and the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army!
Long Live the People's War!
Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Long Live Proletarian Internationalism!
MAY 2025
TKP/ML
(Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist)
English: https://www.tkpml6.net/en/2025/05/25/tkp-ml-red-greetings-lal-salaam-to-comrade-basavaraj-general-secretary-of-the-communist-party-of-india-maoist-and-26-maoist-peoples-fighters/
