Maoist Terrorists Blamed For Deadly Suzuki Riots

A month after the deadly riots at Suzuki’s Manesar factory in India, Maoist extremists are being blamed for the insurrection. Maruti Suzuki Chairman R.C. Bhargava told The Nikkei [sub] that “left-wing extremists pushed the factory workers to riot.”

Bhargava refused to identify the group by name, but the Nikkei connects the readily available dots:

“He was likely referring to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a rebel group founded in 1967 in the state of West Bengal, in eastern India. It aims to encourage a peasant uprising as part of its efforts to undermine the Indian government.”

Maoists, or “Naxalites” as they are sometimes called, are behind a series of deadly attacks in India. The group, estimated to have more than 20,000 members, is particularly strong in poor rural areas on India. In some parts of India, Maoist have set up parallel governments, collecting “taxes” from the rich and giving food to the poor, The Times of India says. Recently, the group started trying to establish ties with people in labor unions in urban areas, The Nikkei learned. The Tokyo wire continues:

“Foreign companies are an ideal target for anti-capitalist Maoists. Some have theorized that the group’s members may be disguising themselves as union members at such firms.”

The Maoist angle has come up several times in the last weeks, some right after the attack. The government promised a thorough investigation.

Chairman Bhargava renewed these claims, saying hat a small group of factory workers, under the influence of leftist, anti-capitalist extremists, planned the riot to plunge the factory into turmoil. So far, they succeeded. The plant remains shuttered indefinitely, despite occasional rumors of an impending re-opening, usually spread by interested union sources.