The ongoing process to bring two former Maoist leaders in Karnataka to the mainstream is expected to be completed within two weeks and it will set an example for others such exercises to follow, said freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy.
Mr. Doreswamy, who is a civil society member of the committee set up to oversee implementation of Surrender/Assimilation and Rehabilitation Policy for Left Wing Extremists, said that he had requested the government to expedite the process. The committee, headed by Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, held a meeting on Tuesday.
Police reports
What is pending for completion of process is submission of reports by superintendents of police in two districts where cases are booked against Noor Zulfikar alias Sridhar and Sirimane Nagaraj, who were underground and had responded to the Government’s call to join the mainstream about a year ago. “The police say reports will be submitted before October 29 and we have told them to make it sooner,” he said.
“After the police reports are submitted, the two will surrender before the court and go through the remaining procedure as per the law,” said Gauri Lankesh, journalist and another civil society member of the committee. Ms. Lankesh pointed out that the pending cases against the duo were booked post-2005, when they had broken away from the Maoist group and shunned armed struggle.
Not for money
The duo had made it clear that they were not interested in taking any financial assistance from the government and it was an ideological decision, said Ms. Lankesh. “They want to continue their activist work in the democratic mainstream and it is not linked to any incentives,” she said.
Mr. Doreswamy added that it was not right to make the surrender package appear like an attempt to “woo people through money” and focus on changed ideological positions should be kept in mind.
