Communist militants run USD300 million extortion empire in India

by israeli.agent | June 7, 2009 at 07:17 pm

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Naxalism, which started off as a people's movement, has now become a nearly Rs 1500 crore organized extortion business in the form of 'levy', police and central security officials said.

CPI (Maoist) and especially its splinter groups, which extort the money hardly pump it back for running the movement but instead use it to maintain luxurious life-styles for their masters, the officials said.

The Naxal literature and documents seized by central security agencies and state police forces during their operations have revealed intricate details of "levy" extorted by groups which run in several hundred crores every year.

The 'levy' is not only paid by the contractors working in the areas dominated by the Naxals but also by the industrial houses including some of the nationally reputed ones, the officials said.

Though, CPI (Maoist) still remains the prominent Naxal group in Jharkhand, there are other splinter groups which too have now started imposing 'levy' besides indulging in kidnapping, looting and narcotics trade, which results in around Rs 300 crore as annual income from the state.

If a conservative estimate is taken of the income generated from 'levy' in the seven most Naxal-infested states Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra security agencies feel the collection from these areas, which are commonly referred to as 'red corridor', amount to nearly Rs 1,500 crore.

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others - this distopian slogan from George Orwel's Animal farm is implemented in letter and spirit by the Indian militant communists called Naxals.

Rooted in remote areas of poverty stricken Indian States and run in the pretext of "protecting the poor and working class", these armed groups of our good old thugs who just extract money from their supposed to be arch enemies , the wealthy. So in essence the communist militants have transformed themselves into "proletarian bourgeois". The real bourgeois can do whatever they want once the payment is made.

It is further complicates the situation that these thugs don't even share doctors who are practicing in the villages. Already not all doctors are willing to work in rural areas.Since these communist thugs issues letters to those few doctors - who are willing to work in villages in spite of all the hardships - demanding money.

The Naxals also encourage local villagers to undertake opium cultivation, just like insurgents in Northeast states.

Of the total 1.07 lakh kg of ganja or marijuana seized in the country in 2007, heavy quantity of it was from Nagaland (15,489 kg), Madhya Pradesh (14,815 kg), Maharashtra (12,551 kg), Chhattisgarh (7,470 kg) and Andhra Pradesh (7,059 kg).

The various "sources" of income for this "revolutionaries" are as follows.

On the other hand, they also 'extort' huge amounts from the beedi leaf contractors themselves, in order to allow them to do business. In fact, extortion from beedi leaf contractors is the single largest source of 'income' for the Naxalites.

A variety of businesses pay-up money to the Naxalites. A senior intelligence official in Andhra Pradesh told this author, on conditions of anonymity, that Class A, B, C and D public works contractors pay eight, six, four and two percent respectively, of the total bid. That apart, for instance, a large paper mill in Andhra Pradesh is believed to have paid Rs 50 lakh every month in 2001; the current figures are not available. Similarly, a rayon factory, also in Andhra Pradesh, pays rupees one crore annually to the Maoists alone, a Senior Superintendent of Police told this author.

The Naxalites demand and secure money from politicians of various hues and from different levels. The Home Minister of one of India's highly affected States is said to have paid a huge sum to the rebels to get elected from his constituency. Another top political leader, who went on to become a Cabinet Minister in the Union government, paid rupees seventeen lakh to the Maoists to facilitate his election, a senior intelligence official from Jharkhand told this author in February 2007. Reportedly, a former Union Minister, Chandradeo Verma, who is an accused in the fodder scam, paid money to the Naxalites to win the elections by defeating his CPI (ML) rival in Bihar. These are mere illustrations, and numerous such cases abound.