UPA renews offer for dialogue with Naxals

A day after the government suffered a major setback in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, after a fresh Naxal attack claimed at least 40 lives, the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) today renewed its offer to sit for a dialogue with the rebels.

But home ministry officials are not very hopeful as both sides are likely to stick to their old demands.

In an interview to a TV channel, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the government was ready to sit for a dialogue if the Naxals “suspend violence for just 72 hours”.

“Maoists should say ‘We will abjure violence. We will suspend violence and actually suspend violence for 72 hours’. We will get the chief ministers on board. We will respond. We will fix a date, time and place for talks and let the Maoists come for the talks on anything they wish to talk,” Chidambaram told the channel.

Naxals are unlikely to respond to this offer as they have already placed a different set of demands that includes the government stopping Operation Greenhunt and releasing several rebel leaders from jail.

Chidambaram, meanwhile, said the Naxals never responded “seriously” to the offer for talks. “They are indulging in gimmickry. I am afraid the media plays up that gimmick,” he said.

Govt soft on Naxals: BJP
A day after the Naxals killed another 40 people in Dantewada, BJP, the principal Opposition party, launched a scathing attack on the government, accusing it of toeing a “soft line” against the Naxals.

Terming the home minister “looking like an injured martyr”, BJP leader Arun Jaitley asked the prime minister to clarify the government’s stand on the Naxals.

Home Minister P Chidambaram responded fast and asked the BJP to take a bipartisan approach.

“Chidambaram appeared to be an injured martyr. He looked disheartened. He claimed he had only a limited mandate from the Cabinet as against the larger mandate that he desired. It is time the PM stood up and spoke on the issue and told the nation what are his views on the subject. Is he only in favour of a limited mandate to fight the Maoists (Naxals)?” asked Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley also picked up a recent article by Sonia Gandhi in the Congress mouthpiece and said the top leadership was supporting a “soft line” towards Naxals. Terming the current tactics of the government against the Naxals as a “half-battle”, Jaitley said, “It is no longer peripheral leaders who want a soft stand against the Maoists. It is the Centre-stage leadership of the party, which has now supported that stand. This is akin to fighting Maoists with one hand tied. A half-battle against Maoists can never succeed. A half-battle is a losing battle.”

“Why is the home minister finding himself helpless, crippled?” Jaitley posed questions, reacting to Chidambaram’s TV interview. Insisting that development in tribal areas could only reach after the armed rebels were wiped out, Jaitley argued, “In order to ensure development and poverty eradication in the secluded Maoist dominated areas, they must first be entered to establish the rule and governance of the civilian administration.”

Brushing aside the logic that lack of development was the prime cause behind the rise of Naxals, he said, “India cannot accept the logic that Maoists are merely misguided ideologues. They are a violent and brutal organisation which wants to overthrow India’s Parliamentary democracy with the use of force. There will be no space for ideological dissent. Elimination of opponents and dissenters will be the rule.”