As the main article on the People’s War in Nepal points out, the Indian government has arrested and is holding a large number of leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). While the world-wide campagin to free Comrade Gaurav was developing, the Indian government arrested another veteran leader and member of the Standing Committee of the Party, Comrade Kiran, in June 2004, while he was undergoing treatment in the Indian state of West Bengal. The Indian government’s efforts are aimed at helping decapitate the revolutionary party and the revolutionary war in Nepal, and it is no accident that they have stepped up the intensity of these efforts as the revolution comes closer to the seizure of power.

The imperialists and reactionaries have repeatedly taught the oppressed the world over painful, bloody lessons about the precious value of revolutionary leaders. Time after time mighty upsurges from below have been crushed or derailed by a combination of mass repression and carefully targeted attacks on the revolutionary leaders at the head of the masses. What Indian revolutionary does not remember with pangs of heartache how Charu Majumdar was grabbed and executed by the Indian state as he unleashed the spring thunder of righteous rebellion among India’s downtrodden peasants in Naxalbari, or what revolutionary from Turkey has never lain awake at night, wondering just "what might have been" if Ibrahim Kaypakkaya had somehow managed to escape the Turkish death squads that cut short the life of that path-breaking 21-year-old communist leader ? The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement itself has the bitter experience, as the article points out, of seeing the People’s War in Peru suffer a grievous setback in the wake of the capture of Communist Party of Peru Chairman Gonzalo and much of the Party’s central leadership.

Maoists are firm believers that the masses are the makers of history - but they also have a deep understanding of what that means in the world today : that in the course of fighting their oppression, the masses need and must bring forth leaders who have the understanding needed to lead them forward through the twists and turns of the complex struggle to prepare for revolutionary war, seize power and remake the world. Without such leadership, however powerful the upsurge of the masses, it will inevitably ebb or go down to defeat against the still far more powerful enemy.

The US imperialists are lashing out today in an unprecedented wave of aggression, "taking the gloves off" their secret police and declaring open season on all who oppose them. Revolutionaries must step up their efforts to protect their leaders from the increasingly great threat they face. This holds particular importance with regard to the Nepal People’s War, where the Indian government in particular has openly declared its intention to go after the Nepalese revolutionary leadership by suddenly arresting a large number of them over the last two years.

The Indian authorities have earned the hatred of millions and exposed themselves for their criminal complicity with the feudal monarchy in Nepal by their treatment of the revolutionary leaders. Comrade Gaurav, for instance, a member of the CPN(M) Politburo who was travelling to Europe to carry out Party work, has been held since August 2003 merely on charges of having false papers - a charge that is normally resolved within days or weeks. They have even threatened to deport comrades Kiran and Guarav to Nepal, as they have already done on the sly with Party leaders Matrika Prasad Yadav (a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee) and Suresh Ale Magar, kidnapped in New Delhi and illegally delivered into the hands of the Nepali Royal Army. This is in clear violation of international law and poses a direct threat to the lives of these revolutionary leaders. The reactionary Nepalese monarchy has been sharply condemned by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations for having the world’s worst record for "disappearances".

These attacks on leaders of the revolution in Nepal have provoked a wave of protest around the world. Protests have been held from Istanbul to London and Delhi. The World People’s Resistance Movement is waging an ongoing campaign in defense of Comrades Kiran and Gaurav and the other leaders and has already sent one delegation of lawyers and human rights activists from Europe to India to put its government on notice that the whole world is watching their reactionary manoeuvres.

To take part in the defense or for more information, please contact : wprm@wprm.org.

Comrade Gaurav

Comrade Chandra Prakash Gajurel, popularly known as Comrade Gaurav, has been contributing without relent for almost three decades as a professional revolutionary in developing the Maoist movement in Nepal. He has always presented himself in the revolutionary camp and fought against wrong lines in all the line struggles in the Party’s history. In the Fifth Congress, 1985, he eloquently pleaded against M.B. Singh’s right opportunist line document, which argued that the Party was falling back due to the majority’s centrist weakness. Comrade Gaurav’s stand in the Fifth Congress played an important role in safeguarding the revolutionary spirit of the Party and navigating it safely from M.B.’s eclectic and opportunist positions. He is one of the main leaders in defeating opportunism of different shades and establishing a correct Maoist line.

His consistent revolutionary work for decades, his Maoist skill in the field of organisation and his theoretical and political writings on various issues in the national and international field concerning economic, social and political questions and his proletarian internationalism have made him a popular leader among the entire Party and the revolutionary Nepalese masses across the country. Since the Fifth Congress, he has been discharging his revolutionary duty as a Political Bureau member of the Central Committee.

On his way to do Party work abroad, the Indian expansionist rulers arrested Comrade Gaurav, a beloved Maoist leader of the Nepalese people, in Chennai airport. He has been held in Chennai jail, south India, since 20 August 2003. n

Comrade Kiran

Comrade Mohan Baidya, popularly known as Comrade Kiran, has been working uninterruptedly for more than three decades as a professional revolutionary in the Maoist communist movement of Nepal. His deep study and excellent grasp of Marxist philosophy, dialectical and historical materialism, and revolutionary aesthetics has contributed a lot to developing the Maoist movement in Nepal, and he established himself as a profound Maoist leader, philosopher and revolutionary aesthetician of the Nepalese masses. A true proletarian internationalist, Comrade Kiran wrote many philosophical works interpreting and establishing Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in the Nepalese revolutionary movement.

Comrade Kiran resolutely fought against revisionism, neo-revisionism, and all sorts of deviations within and outside of the Party. In addition, he played a decisive role in defeating M. B. Singh’s right opportunist line.

In the Fifth Congress in 1985, he was elected General Secretary of the erstwhile CPN (Mashal). Under his leadership, the Party analyzed M.B.’s political history in the communist movement and synthesised that he had represented right opportunism throughout his self-proclaimed revolutionary life. The National Conference held under Comrade Kiran’s leadership following the Fifth Congress brilliantly exposed M.B.’s right opportunism hidden in his revolutionary prattling in the unanimously adopted document, "Anarchist Individualism, the Nepalese Dimension of Right Opportunism".

Noteworthy to mention here is that Comrade Kiran stands as a rare leader in the international communist movement for having voluntarily handed over his position of supreme leadership as General Secretary of the Party to another comrade. Comrade Kiran, with his deepest contentment, proposed Comrade Prachanda to take this responsibility, based on the latter’s greater ability to lead the communist movement. He also came to be one of the main contributors to developing the revolutionary line of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN[M]) under the leadership of Comrade Prachanda. Party leaders, cadres, PLA fighters and the entire Nepalese people have a deep respect for him, not only for his philosophical contributions to the movement, but also for his esteemed sacrifice and determined service to revolution under the Party’s leadership.

The Indian expansionist ruling class has put Comrade Kiran, a Standing Committee Member of the CPN(M) Central Committee, a beloved leader of the oppressed Nepalese people and an outstanding leader of the international proletariat, in an Indian jail for over a year as of January 2005.