Bhubaneswar:
Former secretary of the Odisha unit of the outlawed CPI-Maoist - Sabyasachi Panda, who was recently expelled - has come down heavily on the party leadership and warned them of dire consequences.
In an audio message issued late on Sunday night the senior Maoist leader said the party's decision to expel him comes seven months after he and his supporters had severed all ties with it, and a month after he had announced the formation of a new outfit called the Odisha Maovadi Party (OMP).
The CPI-Maoist party had, in a four-page press release on Friday, announced the expulsion of Sabyasachi Panda for indulging in opportunism, anti-party activities and for being a 'renegade'. The 16-page letter, addressed to the party general secretary Ganapathy, also dismissed the serious allegations brought by Panda against the party leadership.
In a 5-minute long audio message Panda has accused the party of following anti-tribal, anti-minorities and anti-people policies and condemned the party's growing dependence on the politics of eliminating individuals without any justifiable reasons. He has blamed a section of the party's leadership, especially those from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, for the 'degeneration' that has set in within the party. He has specifically named party's central committee member Modem Balkrishna alias Manoj for conspiring against him and trying to impose a number of unacceptable decisions on the Odisha party cadres.
"They have killed activists and workers from the SUCI, CITU, CPI-ML and even ordinary people without any justifiable reasons. I have been critical of their politics of murder and acts that spreads terror. We were not willing to play slaves to a party that denies internal democracy and works against the interests of the people," the audio message said.
Panda has also alleged that the Maoist leaders are collecting huge amount of money from corporates who are displacing the local people for their industries despite a party decision not to seek funds from such private operators. "It was the anti-people and sectarian politics of the party that had forced us to go for a rethink and we finally decided to move away from the party," he said in the message, adding he had decided to expose the wrongdoings in the party in November 2011 after he was placed under 'party arrest' for about three months on the basis of false charges by intolerant and narrow-minded leaders.
Panda has ruled out any possibility of any kind of armed conflict with the CPI-Maoist factions opposed to him and said he and his associates will continue with their work for the poor and oppressed people in Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada and Kandhamal districts where they have been serving the poor and oppressed people since 1995.
Panda has dismissed allegations that he had leaked the content of his long letter to the central committee members of the party and said the police had intercepted it while it was on its way from Kolkata to a jailed party leader.
In his message Panda has said the CPI-Maoist party is moving along a self-destructive path and that it would perish unless it reviews its anti-people policies, admits its mistakes and takes corrective action. "We would welcome it even if we are no longer a part of the party," he said.
Significantly, Sabyasachi Panda has not given any indication at all about the possibility of his surrender or return to mainstream politics, something that has been the subject of wide speculations ever since reports of his differences with top CPI-Maoists appeared in the media.