It is nothing short of a declaration of war against India, says BJP
The Maoist attack at Dantewada saw the two main political parties – the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party – in a role reversal of sorts.
While the Congress wondered whether a political solution was not the better option, the BJP said the attack was nothing short of a declaration of war against the nation and must be dealt with as such.
Congress media in-charge Janardan Dwivedi said: “Whatever happened is most inhuman, condemnable and an attack on India's civil society … it is a challenge to our democratic system. All State governments must tackle the problem with all the seriousness it deserves and cooperate with the Centre.”
However, privately, senior Congressmen felt that Home Minister P. Chidambaram had unnecessarily used provocative language like “we will wipe them out” when talking about Naxals. It was pointed out that the Congress Working Committee resolution on the subject speaks of a political solution as also an option. One leader said terrorism and Naxalism could not be dealt alike. Negotiation was an option in dealing with Naxals and one cannot forget that they enjoyed some support from people.
The BJP, on the other hand, made it clear it stood solidly with the Home Minister and the State governments fighting Naxalism. It was a war which “we must fight to the finish,” party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, echoing what the Home Minister has been saying.
The BJP did not see the issue politically, but wanted the government to take every step possible to end the continuing deadly attacks by Naxals bleeding the country internally. “We are fighting on our borders, and inside the country we are fighting Naxalism. It is a war, which must be fought and won. The country is under threat. Naxal attacks were not a string of separate incidents,” Mr. Rudy said.
Acutely conscious of the fact that the latest deadly attack occurred in Chhattisgarh, ruled by the BJP, Mr. Rudy was not for debate and discussion with Naxal leaders. That time was over, he said.
He did not want to discuss the ‘salwa judum' experiment in Chhattisgarh that has been criticised by many civil rights groups.
Of the 230 districts in the country affected by Naxalism, as many as 90 were seriously affected, Mr. Rudy pointed out. “We have to learn to hit them hard. The country is angry, very angry. We have to finish them and stop the loss of innocent lives.”
Chidambaram blamed
Mr. Rudy did not want to be drawn into commenting on the recent exchange of words between Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on where the “buck” stops on this question. However, late in the evening, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley took on Mr. Chidambaram, saying the “buck” definitely stops on the Home Minister's table.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) chose to remain silent on Tuesday while indicating that it would find out more about what had happened and then react.
Keywords: Maoists, massacre, Dantewada, naxal menace
CRPF jawans are not getting all facility.They are not getting good weapons and no doctors to cure injured jawans.
I feel sorrow for the commandos who abandon their lives and save the lives of others. Now we have to fight all this attack because we are the future of this country. If we don't save our country it will be ruined.
Everyone here cries about Maoist atrocities. Just for a moment look at it in a different way: Had these CRPF jawans killed tribals (which happens very often and our media and politicians never seem to pay any attention on that) in abundance what kind of reflections it would have created in our minds? We have to understand one thing that these CRPF men were not sent to the forest with garlands in their hands or they did not go there to fall in love with Maoists. Instead they went to the forest heavily armed to kill the Maoists. To kill or get killed is only a bare minimum understanding in any war. There is nothing to make a hue and cry about getting someone, who is sent to kill, killed. It is high time we focussed on who really create these Maoists!
It's high time government takes serious steps to the naxals' inhuman actvities. Lose of innocent lives is heart breaking.
Mr.Chidambaram had declared a war on the Maoist whether he called it a war or not and had vowed to wipe them out of the face of the earth. What happened yesterday was only a battle in the war and that battle the government forces lost even without a fight. It reflected our lack of preparedness for the war more than the strength of the Maoists. The media and the political parties should point this out rather than shouting their heart out about the cruelty of the opponent. Any insurgent group will take every oppotunity to give a telling blow to the government it is fighting. Every strategic and tactical blunder of the government forces will invite disaster. Then nothing will be gained by crying about the inevitable cruelty of the opponent. The government forces just have to do better to win the war.
Yes, Maoists' violence is a serious challenge to democracy in India. Their acts will merely give the government opportunities to crush them with a heavy hand. Maoists are living in an imaginary world if they think that situation in India is ready for a violent revolution.
It is better to be late than never. The realisation of Congress on Maoist activities, is welcome. But what steps did Congress Government in UPA-I take against Maoist movement with Mr.Shivraj Patil as Home Minister? During the time Maoists had spread in four States. High Command now should take up the responsibility.
Learn from Sri Lanka example. How many years and at what cost? Army is not well trained in such situation. New trainng module is required. Hear what Dr Bramdev Sharma think on tribals. Please pay heed to him also.
The emotions are running high within the politicians of India. But it is a fact that they are the ones who put the people in such a situation. Naxalism is a menace as you say, but this new generation has few unanswered questions.
1) How did the naxals who were in some thousands in the 90's have grown so big?? Such a big force cannot be amassed without vaoluntary involvement of the younger generation.The people are driven towards naxalism just because of the social injustice prevailing in the system.
2) Are the naxals fighting alone?
Many civil rights activists say that naxals have a wide support of the tribal people. The goverment has never reacted to this.So Operation Green Hunt is against our own people.
ha3) Operation Green Hunt is for what??
Why our jawans have to die to make the lands secure for the MNCs for exploiting our country's resources. In the name of Industrialisation the government is going to sell trillions worth resources for just 7% royalty.
4) This is a democratic nation and why the govt is keeping the MoUs in secret.
The politicians just want to escape from the situation that is created due to their policies.
Even on Military scale why did the CRPF company didn't folow the Jungle warfare guidance. Where are the minesweeping vehicles and sniffer dogs to find IEDs?
These questions will never be answered. Our Jawans are dying for ensuring the safety of someone.
It is a battle lost. We should not lose our head, in spite of the attack being very inhuman and ghastly. We must win the war for democracy.
This incident clearly proves the lack of proper training of the police for such operations. Such a large scale massacre of the police was possible because they walked into a trap. The Home Ministry should first of all plan the proper training of the anti-naxal forces.Such a large group can not move without making sure that they are not entering into a trap.
This is not the time to find fault with the what home minister said. This is the time to strengthen democracy backing the home minister. This is a war like situation. I strongly feel it is time for Indian army to wipe this naxal threat.
I hadn't even heard much about the Naxals until yesterday but after doing a little more reading up on the subject I can see that India has a very serious problem. They have millions of supporters and 10s of thousands of armed men. If India decides to use military action against them then that could just vastly increase their numbers and the government could even lose the war. It has happened in other countries in similar situations. The sensible thing to do would be to listen to their problems and address some of them. The poor are difficult to defeat militarily as they are used to harsh conditions and have little to lose. Maybe if India decides to be more friendly to its neighbours (especially China which is a huge underexploited market) and traded with them more then many of the poorest areas could be developed hence eroding the naxal recruiting grounds. At the moment the Indian government cannot win the hearts and minds of the poor so they will have to do something.
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