The National Democratic Alliance government has firmly ruled out holding peace talks with the Maoists as long as they are not prepared to abjure violence.
“There is no question of any dialogue with Maoists as long as they do not give up arms,” the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar said.
His assertion came in the wake of growing demand for revival of talks with the outlawed CPI(Maoist) to find a lasting political solution. Barring Bharatiya Janata Party, all the political parties in Telangana, including the ruling Congress, have backed the demand.
“They (Maoists) have to renounce arms, surrender before the police, and change their violent ways. How can we hold talks with a banned organisation whose members continue to hold firearms?” the minister wondered.
Sanjay Kumar is a BJP MP from Karimnagar in Telangana, which was once a stronghold of Naxalites. He slammed the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President K Chandrashekar Rao for coming out in support of holding talks with Maoists.
“How can you forget the atrocities and murders committed by Naxalites in the past? Many political leaders across parties were killed in Maoist attacks,” Kumar said.
“The Maoists carry arms. But the chief minister says the problem has to be seen from a sociological perspective. The Maoists are killing policemen by blowing up landmines. Let Revanth Reddy be reminded that it was the Congress which had imposed a ban on the Naxalites. It was the Naxalites who killed Congress leader D Sripada Rao (former speaker of united Andhra Pradesh assembly), who had no enemies at all,” he said.
The Union minister said that both Revanth Reddy and Chandrashekar Rao were vying with each other to put forth the demand that the hunt for the Maoists should be stopped and talks should be held with them. “How can any government hold talks with the Maoists who continue to hold firearms?” he asked and wondered whether they supported the killing of the policemen.
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“In Mahamutharam mandal in Karimnagar, the Naxalites had killed a Sub Inspector ahead of an auspicious ceremony in his home and shot and killed another constable as he was celebrating his son’s birthday. When KCR (Chandrashekar Rao) was in the TDP, Maoists killed several leaders belonging to his party. Have they forgotten the mayhem?” he asked.
The union minister also took a swipe at left-wing intellectuals seeking the initiation of a dialogue with the Maoists.
Lessons from past
It was during the Congress rule in the combined Andhra Pradesh that the first ever direct talks with Naxalites were held in October 2004. However, the peace talks soon collapsed after the Naxalite outfit, People’s War Group (PWG), pulled out, citing ‘continued fake encounters’.
Even during the 2004 talks, the government had insisted that the Maoists eschew violence. However, the Maoists maintained that they could not forsake arms, though they promised not to use them.
A section of the civil society and political organisations has now raised the demand to revive the peace talks and sought the state government’s intervention to put an end to the ongoing security operation against Maoists in Chhattisgarh and other states.
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