The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) paid tribute to Communist Party of India (Maoist) general secretary Comrade Basavaraju (Nambala Keshava Rao) who was martyred along with 27 others on May 21. Indian state forces killed them in the so-called Gundekote Massacre, in Abhujmad in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh, India.

Comrade Basavaraju’s name now shines among the immortal heroes of the epic people’s war in India and the revolutionary struggles for national liberation and socialism around the world. He carried the torch of the armed struggle in India, enlightening the path of the international proletarian revolution, especially during the past decades of setbacks and defeats of socialist forces in various parts of the world.

Who is Comrade Basavaraju?

Comrade Basavaraju was born in 1955 to a peasant family in the Jiyannapetta community in the Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, in southeastern India. He attended elementary and high school in their district and went to the city of Warangal in the neighboring state of Telangana to study engineering in college.

While in college, he became aware of the situation and the Indian people’s struggle, leading him to join the student movement. In the 1980s, he became part of and played a key role in CPI (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War. He became a member of the party’s central committee in 1992.

In 2004, he was among those who led the merger of CPI (ML) People’s War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) to form the CPI (Maoist). He was one of the founders of India’s people’s army, the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), in 2000. He led it for a sustained period and spearheaded many victories in building revolutionary bases and launching tactical offensives against fascist forces.

He served as a Central Committee member for 33 years and of the Politburo for 25 years. He led the Central Military Commission of the CPI (Maoist) for a long time. In the latter part of 2018, the Central Committee elected him as CPI (Maoist) general secretary, succeeding the leadership of Comrade Ganapathy.

Call for justice

Justice is the united cry of the Indian people and international parties and organizations over the killing of Comrade Basavaraju and 27 other comrades. The Gundekote Massacre violated a number of provisions under international humanitarian law and the rules of war.

According to the report of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of the CPI (Maoist), the 27 CPI (Maoist) comrade-members and PLGA fighters were killed in the encirclement of their camp by thousands of the reactionary state’s military and police. The committee revealed that after the battles, Comrade Basavaraju was captured alive and later deliberately killed by the Modi regime’s butcher agents.

The brutal Gundekote Massacre is part of the terrorist campaign Operation Kagaar. The operation began in January 2024, during which the reactionary state deployed thousands of armed forces, established hundreds of military detachments, and carried out a campaign of killings and terrorism mainly against the Adivasi, the indigenous peoples of India.

At present, various democratic organizations in India are pushing for an investigation into the Gundekote Massacre. They want the Modi regime and its military officials to be held accountable for these grave crimes.

Meanwhile, the Central Committee of the CPP expressed full confidence that the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee it will immediately choose a leader equal in capability to Comrade Basavaraju to assume the responsibilities he held. The leadership stated its confidence that with the wisdom of the senior cadres and the vigor and intelligence of the younger cadres, the CPI (Maoist) will overcome all challenges, continue on the path of revolutionary armed struggle, and achieve greater victories in the people’s war in India.