Union Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh assailed the Maoists or Naxalites (call them by whatever name, they smell as foul) in eight states of the country and said that taming them was a great challenge for the Centre and the state governments. He felt that a dialogue with them would be useless. Maoists believed only in the language of violence and ran their judicial system which destroyed national peace. Their political objective is to follow China and establish single party rule by force. Singh said that some NGOs indulged in propagating and publishing the deeds of extremists and are blind to the fact that most victims of the Maoist menace are from poor and tribal communities. Along with that is Jehadi terrorism which has hit several parts of the country. The Jehadis find their passage through Nepal and gain a foothold in border areas where they mobilise people to adopt the path of violence. Singh claimed that the Centre’s strong Intelligence network helped a large number of them to be apprehended.
All this indicates a revised approach to the terrorists in the Union Home Ministry. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had long been advocating a dialogue with the Maoists. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also anxious to pursue a peace initiative though she has had to resort to armed action as the predators in Jangal Mahal have proved intractable. For the first time, a senior Cabinet official has made it clear that talks with the Maoists are pointless. Singh has announced a rise in deployment of border outposts along the border with Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan at the risk of causing resentment in the neighbouring countries. He is no doubt on the right track. The war on terror in India has to intensify.
