Only socialism can offer best democracy: Sirimane Nagaraj

Naxalite movement, despite its shortcomings, has helped some backward regions in the State to get basic facilties, said Sirimane Nagaraj, former naxalite, who accepted the State government package to return to the mainstream, here on Friday.

Due to the activities of naxalites, harassment by Forest department and other officials in tribal areas and regions inhabited, has stopped. Basic facilities such as roads and electricity has reached these places due to naxal threat, he claimed.

Interacting with journalists during the ‘Meet the press’ programme in the city, he said that he and Noor Zulfikar had not “surrendered”, but had rather returned to the mainstream of open democratic struggles, from the underground and secret path. To a question, he said that armed conflict was irrelevant in the modern day for two reasons.

“Firstly, there are democratic ways to fight against the inequalities in society. Even Maoist communist policies too stress on all forms of revolt to achieve equality. All democratic means should be exhausted, before deciding to take up arms,” he said.

He blamed the government for the loss of life, owing to naxal movement in the State. “In 99 per cent of the cases, government machinery is responsible for the deaths, while naxals are responsible for the remaining one per cent. Despite best interests at heart, some naxals did have violent tendencies,” he said. Noting that 18 naxalites and three civilians have been killed due to the movement in the past few years, he said that it was “unfortunate” that these people had to lose their lives.

CM factor
He said that it would have been impossible for him and Noor Zulfikar to return to the mainstream during the BJP regime, if not for the relaxation in conditions of the government package for naxalites. “It was not possible for us to come to the mainstream during BJP rule, even though we had contemplated taking up democratic revolt for some time now. For the first time in the history of Karnataka, the government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the concerned State Committee designated for this purpose responded positively in this process, which led to the fruitful culmination of this new type of effort,” he said.

He said that politicians of the country were only concerned with the welfare of capitalists and landlords, and officials in the executive and judiciary wing of the country, lacked a sense of social responsibility, leading to the problems seen in the country. “Our movement is to ensure that politics serves the causes of the majority,” he said. To a question on alternatives to a democratic system, he said that there was no complete solution for an “ideal system”. Socialism when implemented correctly, is the best governance system for a nation. However, socialistic ideals to be amended to suit the conditions of the country, if the ideology has to achieve any success, he said.