Hours after Maoists sent a virtual SOS to the government through a section of the local media indicating the “critical health condition” of abducted Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon, held hostage by them since April 21, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Tuesday morning rushed his “emissary” along with medicines for him.
Dr Raman Singh also on Tuesday set in motion the process of initiating a dialogue with the Maoists to secure the safe release of the 32-year-old IAS officer, naming two interlocutors who would negotiate with the Naxal-appointed mediators on behalf of his government.
He also sought an extension of the Maoists’ April 25 deadline to meet their demands to secure the collector’s freedom, saying, “The complex negotiation process will not be completed in such a short period.”
“Former chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh Nirmala Buch and former chief secretary of Chhattisgarh Suyogya Kumar Mishra have accepted my request to be government mediators to negotiate with Maoist-appointed intermediaries to end the hostage crisis,” Dr Singh told reporters here.
Responding to emails from the Naxals to a section of the local media a little past-midnight Monday asking the government to deliver medicines for the collector, who is asthmatic, through the mediators appointed by them to arrest his “fast deteriorating health”, Dr Singh immediately sent former Konta MLA Manish Kunjam with medicines for him.
Mr Kunjam took a helicopter to Sukma to meet Mr Menon’s wife, Asha, and then took medicine kits from her to Tadmetla, in Dantewada district, by road to hand it over to the Naxals or their couriers.
“I have already refused to take part in the negotiation process due to regional circumstances and party obligations. But I have agreed to carry the medicine for the collector as his life is supreme. I took the medical kits from the district magistrate’s wife, who requested me to ask the Naxals to take care of her husband and also send audio or video messages from him to her immediately,” Mr Kunjam, national president of the Adivasi Mahasabha, told this newspaper on the telephone from Sukma.
Besides Mr Kunjam, another mediator named by the Naxals, Prashant Bhusan, has reportedly turned down the Maoist offer. However, B.D. Sharma, the third Naxal-sponsored mediator, has agreed to join the negotiation process.