Centre tells Buddha to keep Maoists under pressure

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram here today, was told by them that while pressure on the Maoists was to be maintained at all costs, major armed clashes should be avoided.

Chidambaram is reported to have suggested to Bhattacharjee that “as far as possible, major armed confrontation between the security forces and the Maoists should be avoided, since it could see civilians getting caught in the cross-fire.”

Official sources said Chidambaram told Bhattacharjee that one of the ways to pressure the insurgent groups was to ban them. Chief Minister later told the media that the home minister’s suggestion was good and “we must give it a serious thought.” The proposal for outlawing any organisation comes from the state government and it is the Ministry of Home Affairs that imposes a legal ban.

Later, Bhattacharjee hinted that his government would continue a sustained attack on the Maoists after the Centre assured him additional help, if required. “We are thinking of continuing this campaign against the Maoists. It will take some time but we hope to win this campaign,” he said today.

Chidambaram assured Bhattacharjee that Centre would always be liberal in helping his government with additional security forces and arms to combat the menace of Maoist insurgency. The centre had rushed additional forces and the elite Cobra force to Lalgarh, a tribal habitation in West Midnapore district, where the Maoists had almost taken control last week. Bhattacharjee informed that the Centre had already sent 13 companies of CRPF and 6 BSF companies.

Bhattacharjee has also lodged a complaint to the top brass of the government that Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TC) had direct links with the Maoists. Earlier, the CPI(M) had alleged that both the Congress and the TC had links with Maoists. But today, the Bengal chief minister dropped charges against the Congress and blamed TC alone for links with the Terrorists. “I know TC has strong links with the People’s Committee (an arm of the Maoists) in that area. I don’t want to blame the Congress,” Bhattacharjee told reporters. Later, CPI(M) politburo member and West Bengal unit secretary Biman Bose, too, gave clean-chit to the Congress and said the party would discuss the issue of banning the Maoists.

However, Chidambaram asked Bhattacharjee to take care that no major armed confrontation was taken up with the insurgents, since they operate while making shield of the local population. Any flare-up leading to political unrest and fear-psychosis should be avoided.

Bhattacharjee also informed the Centre that of the 241 administrative blocks in the state, 18 blocks were fully or partially affected by the Maoist presence.