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| TMC supremo calls for talks with Naxalites | | Efforts for conflict resolution |
| Rajat Roy / Kolkata Oct 12, 2009, 00:40 IST |
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The Naxalites have stubbornly refused to lay down arms as a pre-condition to a dialogue with the government. In response to the call given by the Union home minister, P Chidambaram, to the Naxalites to lay down arms and come to the negotiating table, one of their top leaders, Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji, has proposed to have a ceasefire. In an interview to a local TV channel, he ruled out the possibility of laying down of arms.
"The question of laying down of arms does not arise at all. It is against our principle," he said. However, aware that the UPA government was planning a major offensive against them across various states, he offered to have a cease fire to prepare the ground for such a dialogue.
Yesterday, Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the main opposition party in West Bengal, and Railway minister, said that the Centre should initiate talks with the Naxalites and "eminent people" should be asked to start the process.
But no immediate reaction to that was heard from the Naxalites.
Like the Union government, the CPI(M)-led state government in Bengal is of the opinion that the Naxalites could be engaged for a dialogue once they laid down arms. But Mamata insisted that instead of going for a crackdown, the Centre should immediately initiate the process of a dialogue with them.
While Mamata is being seen to be repeatedly condemning the politics of violence, her position vis-a-vis the Naxalites of Maoist brand has been a little ambiguous. She has been denying any presence of the Naxalites either in Nandigram or in Lalgarh, and critical of the joint police operation in Lalgarh.
Last month, Nishikanta Mondal, one of the TMC leaders in Nandigram, was brutally murdered by the Naxalites and the act was later owned up by them. Yet, Mamata refused to take note of that and continued to claim it as an act by the CPI(M).
Now, her sudden positioning as an interlocutor between the Naxalites and the Centre raises certain questions in the political circles. A Leftist political leader observed that Mamata was not comfortable with the idea that the Naxalites were steadily expanding their influence in the state and occupying space in the anti-CPI(M) sphere. She cannot allow the growth of a parallel centre of power in the anti-CPI(M) political space.
That is the reason she has been vehemently denying any presence of the Naxalites in both Nandigram and Lalgarh despite evidences to the contrary. Secondly, the imminent crackdown by the Centre on Naxalites will make Mamata a party to that decision. As Kishenji pointed out earlier that Mamata being a member of the Cabinet never raised her voice in protest against the move. Mamata's suggestion for a talk could be viewed as an attempt to deflect the charge made by the Naxalites.
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