Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, speaking to reporters after a Planning Commission meeting here Thursday evening, said the Maoist menace needed to be “eliminated completely”, and added: “Any tendency to destroy society with arms cannot be accepted... whether (by) the Centre or the states.”
He went on to clarify his remarks earlier in the day in Aligarh, where he was reported to have taken a “soft” line towards the Maoists, favouring talks with them. He claimed he had been merely responding to a question about the youth who were joining the insurgency.
Mr Modi insisted that he was “neither asked what the government should do, nor did I reply on the issue.” He claimed he merely said that “I will request the youth to give up violence and work within the constitutional framework ... as violence will never change the situation.” Mr Modi’s reported “soft” line on Maoists had stunned the BJP, which has been advocating a hardline position, particularly after the recent reign of terror and violence in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had not merely attacked the Union home ministry over its failure to tackle the Maoist menace, but had said a “half-battle against Maoists can never succeed”. Mr Jaitley had also said he did not subscribe to the theory that lack of development was behind the spread of Naxalism in the state.