Blame and confusion continues to affect the home ministry’s efforts to tackle the terror unleashed by the Maoists. The Central and intelligence outfits operating in the Maoist-dominated areas appears to have no clue of the insurgents’ movements as they continue to strike with impunity.
Contradictions persist among home minister P. Chidambaram and the Congress leaders on how to deal with the Maoists. While Mr Chidambaram on Monday said that he was trying to “convince” the Cabinet on providing air support to anti-Naxal operations, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh disfavoured use of air force in dealing with Naxalism. The Indian Air Force and the Army are against their involvement in anti-Naxal operations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to review the Naxal strategy.
However, a day after talking of air strikes on a TV channel, the home minister on Tuesday made a fresh offer to hold talks with Naxals if they “suspend” violence on another TV channel. “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,” Mr Chidambaram went on air. Outside his office, the home minister said that “all chief ministers have unlimited mandate to tackle the Maoist violence, since the Centre can only assist.” Sources disclosed that the coordinated efforts, which include the joint operations against the Maoists, have not “evoked expected reaction”.
Despite the home ministry’s repeated attempts, “lack of training and morale of the forces continue to be a cause of concern,” sources disclosed. Central security agencies continue to complain of lack of coordination between the state police and paramilitary forces. In two attacks in Chhattisgarh on April 6 and May 17, the Maoists killed 125 people which included 35 civilians and 90 security personnel. Lack of coordinated efforts between the state and the Central forces have been consistently hampering the so-called “joint action against the Naxalites”.
The entire issue now appears to be snowballing into a political debate between the home ministry and the BJP. If the BJP is trying to cover the failure of the saffron-ruled Chhattisgarh in tackling Maoist violence by calling Mr Chidambaram an “injured martyr”, the home minister responded by saying: “I have heard Arun Jaitley’s comments. He called me an injured martyr which is a bad choice of words. I would appeal to all political parties, especially the BJP, to have a bipartisan approach.”
There seems to be no clear roadmap or a strategy in place to deal with this rapidly menace.
The debate continues to rage on whether to describe the Maoist violence a law and order or a social issue, a Congress functionary pointed out. “We are trying to work out, we need state cooperation,” a home ministry official said.
As the Maoists kill with impunity, the Centre and Opposition-ruled states indulge in a blame game. Dr Singh is now set to review the Naxal strategy.