No revolution for old radicals

Sen, who has given up guerrilla warfare but remains involved with people's movements, finds it hard to comprehend the Maoists' strategy in Lalgarh. "After their armed action, the Maoists called it a 'liberated zone'. It was a huge tactical mistake. By saying so, they allowed the state to claim the moral high ground and proclaim, 'we are going against militants'. On the contrary, Nandigram became a legitimate people's movement cutting across party loyalties because it spoke of land and livelihood. As a consequence, the state tries to earn credibility to suppress the legitimate resistance of the poor and the oppressed," he says, with the wisdom of a 62-year-old who has seen it all.

His story is fascinating. He belongs to a middle-class Calcutta home and was radicalized as a student leader in Durgapur's Regional Engineering College. By the time he was in his fourth year of college, the Naxalbari movement had begun. Elsewhere in the world, the Vietnam war and Chinese Cultural Revolution were happening. Student activism was at its peak. Sen's life-changing moment occurred on June 1, 1969. A minor traffic accident led students to battle police near campus. The angry young people ransacked a police station. When a sub-inspector arrived on campus, he was taken hostage. The next day, 150 policemen stormed the campus. Every one was beaten up. One student was killed in the firing. "Till then we had a few naxalites. But the firing converted at least 30 of us who became full-timers. At least 600-700 students became naxal sympathizers," says Sen.

He went underground and became an organizer in Burdwan district. By day, he stayed in the homes of landless labourers; by night, he travelled around trying to raise a guerrilla army. Often his only meal would be a bit of puffed rice. He was allegedly on the police 'hit list'. "On one occasion, I was asked to leave a shelter at 4 am because it was no longer safe for me," he says. By 1973, Sen was disillusioned. "I could see there was no revolutionary condition as envisaged by our leaders."

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