Since October 24, several ‘Urban Naxal’ groups have been waging a dispute in the public eye. The dispute revolves around sexual assault allegations by a member of the Nazariya Magazine and allegations of an attempted coverup levelled against the group.
This is the second part of the report on the dispute between Nazariya Magazine and Students for People’s Democracy (SfPD). Readers can check out the first part here. We recommend that readers read the first part first before proceeding with this report.
We again reiterate that all information in this report is available in the public domain. They are part of public statements made by one or the other leftist groups. Also, we have removed the victim’s name from the statements we have quoted. Both, the victim and the ‘Urban Naxal’ groups have publicly named the victim. But we are making a conscious decision to not publish her name.
To clarify, we are calling the groups ‘Urban Naxal’ because we could not find any other term more appropriate. They glorify Maoists and regurgitate Maoist propaganda. They were pressurising the Indian Govt to accept the Maoists’ ceasefire demands. And they call the neutralisation of Naxal terrorist Nambala Keshav Rao ‘extrajudicial killing’. The term ‘Urban Naxal’ may often be misused but in this case, it suits perfectly.
The October Surge by SfPD
In October 2024, the alleged victim (let us call her X) went public with her allegations against Mukundan Nair and the group. Right after that, the SfPD issued a statement in solidarity with the victim. The statement said that “a comrade from Nazariya has publically raised serious concerns such as that of patriarchal structure, victim blaming and enabling of sexual abuse in the organisation.”
This first statement urged Nazariya Magazine to respond to the allegations. Three days later, on the 24th of October, the magazine did issue a response. In their response, they admitted there were severe lapses in their handling of the complaint.
On the 26th, the SfPD issued a statement of their own in response to the magazine’s statement. The lengthy statement employed a host of Communist jargons to launch a blistering attack against the magazine. Significantly, SfPD demanded that “rectification must necessarily include structural reforms in the organisation, gender sensitisation, concrete steps towards combating patriarchy in the everyday practice of members and requisite ideological nurturing.”
The SfPD also claimed that Nazariya protected the identities of the individuals who had mishandled the initial complaint but heavily advertised the identity of the victim. The statement also said that the investigative committee that was formed in March 2024 to investigate the assault allegations instead ruled upon the sex life of the victim.
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The statement also criticised the magazine for the use of the term ‘sexual opportunism’, which it dubbed “extremely problematic”. It also said, “Failures to handle issues having to do with sexual harassment and gender justice have continually played a major role in alienating women and queer people from left spaces.”
Only a day later, the SfPD issued another statement, this time against Nishant Anand and Val Vashri from Nazariya. This statement accused Anand and Val of circulating an “investigation report”, presumably the report prepared by the investigation committee.
According to SfPD, the investigation report contained no dates, no signatories, no reference to any witness testimonies, no details of one of the incidents and no facts or reference to any recorded testimonies. It also contained several fabrications. The statement claimed that the report accused the victim of “sexual opportunism” and “baselessly declared a breach of discipline regarding having premarital sex”.
SfPD claims that this was done with the specific intent of slut shaming and victim blaming. According to them, the report also contained “graphic details of a traumatic experience of sexual assault with comments which undermine the severity of violations being described.”
Apparently, Nazariya did not even bother to seek the victim’s consent before publicising such lurid details. SfPD also accused Val and Anand of ‘rape apologia’ and described them as dangers to the revolutionary movement.
The November Revolution
In the first week of November, the SfPD published a statement by the victim on the whole fiasco. There was some discussion regarding the formation of a ‘Joint Committee’ to ‘restructure Nazariya’. The victim did not appreicate this at all. She did not see how such a Committee will address her concerns.
On November 23, Nazariya announced the expulsion of the victim from the group. The next day, SfPD issued a severe condemnation of the same. In its statement, the group compared Nazariya to a Patriarchal family. It said, “This is only an extension of the Patriarchal family, where sexual abuse, misogyny, patriarchal behaviours are all considered “internal matters” which are not to be discussed by society at large.”
ALSO READ: Radical Leftist Magazine Expelled Alleged Assault Victim Over ‘Sexual Opportunism’
The group also accused Val and Anand of mental harassment, social ostracisation of the victim, victim blaming and enabling sexual abuse. According to SfPD, Nazariya referred to premarital sex between consenting adults as a violation of “Communist Morality”. The statement accused the magazine of imposing “Brhaminical Morality” in the name of “Communist Morality”.
In December 2024, the SfPD published a lengthy statement on Communist Morality. For the first time, it accused the magazine of circulating “pornographic details of the incident of sexual assault.” On the last day of the year, they released a statement clarifying that they had never demanded the disbanding of Nazariya. However, they did rule out the possibility that disbanding might be the only solution.
The inter-Urban Naxal dispute in 2025
The whole dispute has continued into 2025. In an interview with ‘The Masses’, a website run by the Revolutionary Maoist Coalition, USA, SfPD discussed the allegations against Nazariya. After providing a brief timeline of events, the interview delved into a wider array of issues.
The group said that it recognised “significant failings that undermine revolutionary practice, mass line and Marxist perspectives on gender and patriarchy.” It again emphasises the magazine’s user of terms like “sexual opportunism”.
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The SfPD also restated some of its comments from the past. It said, “It raises crucial questions about the safety of women and queer comrades within the movement, sending out a message that anyone who speaks out against sexual harassment in these spaces risks being silenced, slandered, or harassed.
This is not the end of the story. The third part of the report will focus on the charges levelled against groups such as FACAM and bsCEM. It will focus on how a nexus of organisations worked together to silence an alleged sexual assault victim.
