Rajnath appeals to Naxals to shun violence, join mainstream

Gurgaon:Making it clear violence has no place in a democracy and that the killing of innocents leads to nowhere, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday asked the Naxals to abjure violence and join the mainstream.
Addressing the 75th raising day of CRPF, Singh said that Mao Zedong’s ideo-logy, which is being fol-lowed by the CPI (Maoist) in India, is forgotten even in China, the country where he had founded the Communist state. “But here (in India) you (Naxals) are killing your innocent countrymen by following that ideology.
I would like to appeal to the Naxals to shun violence. “Our democratic values are very strong. I would like to ask them to change the power through democracy and not by guns,” he said after taking the salute at an impressive parade by CRPF personnel.
Thirty-eight per cent of CRPF’s troops are deployed in the Left-Wing Extremism theatre, the Home Minister said even as he noted that the country’s largest paramilitary force is engaged in many critical areas and that around 80 per cent of its personnel work in high-risk zones. CRPF not only plays an active role in facing internal security challenges but also prov-ides cover during general elections and hence can be termed ‘loktantra ke prahri’ (soldier of democracy), said Singh.(PTI)