The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and other international parties and organizations 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. They were killed in what has been called the Gundekote Massacre, in Abhujmad, part of Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh, India.

Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) reported that the 27 comrades and fighters of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) were killed when thousands of military and police forces of the reactionary state surrounded their camp. The report revealed that the Modi regime butchers captured Comrade Basavaraju alive after the clashes and summarily executed him.

In their martyrdom, the CPP and the New People’s Army raised their Red flags high to pay them tribute and give them the highest recognition. “They paid the ultimate sacrifice in fighting for the revolutionary cause of the oppressed and exploited peoples of India, and the cause of the international proletariat,” the CPP Central Committee stated.

The CPP leadership said “the massacre was a gross display of power meant to terrorize the people of India, in order to force them to submit and surrender to imperialism and state terrorism.” The fascist Modi regime clearly carried this out to project strength, but it only further exposed the weak and rotten ruling system and its deepening political crisis.

The Gundekote Massacre is only the latest among the Modi regime’s brutal massacres and attacks against the Indian people, Adivasi, and revolutionaries under its Operation Kagaar. This operation began in January 2024 and was marked by the deployment of tens of thousands of military and police troops to seize the lands of the Adivasi.

Adivasi communities are also riddled with military camps and detachments to pave the way for imperialists and local big capitalists to plunder the land’s wealth. Under orders from the Modi regime, reactionary forces carried out aerial bombing campaigns using drones and jet fighters supplied by the US and Israel, and a series of massacres both against guerrilla fighters and civilians.

“A similar US-directed campaign of all-out suppression is being carried out in the Philippines, along the same strategy of using overwhelming military force, in a vain attempt to terrorize the people and put an end to their armed and non-armed resistance,” according to the Central Committee.

As in India, wherever the fascist armed forces carry out their rampage, drooling American multinational corporations follow with their earth-moving machines eager to take over the land. “However, the more atrocities and brutalities committed by the reactionary forces against the peasant masses and the minority people, the greater the contempt that they provoke among the people, leaving them with other option than to take up arms to defend their rights and lives,” it said.

“The Modi fascist regime and its imperialist masters are utterly wrong to think that the death of Comrade Basavaraju will lead to the defeat of the CPI (Maoist) and the people’s war in India,” according to the Central Committee.

Comrade Basavaraju led, taught, and strengthened thousands of communist cadres and revolutionary fighters (Naxalites) over decades of participation in the people’s war. “In death, his heroism and martyrdom will surely inspire even more to fight without fear, and with even greater determination to advance and win the people’s war,” the Central Committee stated.

The CPP honored the immeasurable contributions of Comrade Basavaraju, especially in establishing the PLGA in 2000 and leading it to many victories in building revolutionary bases and launching tactical offensives against fascist forces. He succeeded Comrade Ganapathy in leadership in 2018 and has served as general secretary since then.

“His 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,” it said. The committee further explained that in bearing the torch of the armed struggle in India, Comrade Basavaraju helped illuminate the path of the world proletarian revolution, especially in the past decades of setbacks and defeats of socialist forces around the world.

In the face of the martyrdom of Comrade Basavaraju, the Central Committee expressed full confidence in the Central Committee of its fraternal CPI (Maoist) that it will immediately choose a leader equal in ability to Comrade Basavaraju to assume the responsibilities he held. It said, “We are confident that by combining the wisdom of its senior cadres, with the energy and acumen of its young cadres, the CPI (Maoist) will surmount all difficulties, persevere on the path of revolutionary armed struggle, and accumulate even greater victories the people’s war in India.”

The International Committee to Support the People’s War in India (ICSPWI), Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan, TKP-ML (Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist) and its armed force TİKKO (Workers and Peasants Liberation Army of Turkey), and the Political Bureau Communist Party of Greece (M-L) also expressed their tribute to Comrade Basavaraju.