{"id":64363,"date":"2009-05-02T17:54:39","date_gmt":"2009-05-02T17:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.tehelka.com\/?p=64363"},"modified":"2009-05-02T17:54:39","modified_gmt":"2009-05-02T17:54:39","slug":"everyone-is-scared-of-the-naxals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/everyone-is-scared-of-the-naxals\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everyone Is Scared Of The Naxals\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Babulal<\/a>You were tough against the Naxals but your tenure also saw a rise in Naxalism.<\/strong>
\nArjun Munda, Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren who followed me as CM all played a negative role and diluted the fight against the Naxals. I invited the Naxals to join the mainstream but also punished those who refused the offer. Many Naxals surrendered in the Bokaro and Giridih districts. There were many encounters and Naxals were on the run then. I also started development activities. In the worst affected districts of Palamu and Chatra, the farmers came back to their farms.
\nSo why has Naxal activity shot up?<\/strong>
\nBecause the politicians are all scared of the Naxals. Everyone demands that [Parliament attack convict] Afzal Guru be hanged but no one dares to speak against the Naxals. I had arrested many Naxals under POTA. But the then Union Home Minister LK Advani called me and said, \u201cWhy are you doing this? I have to answer for it in Parliament.\u201d<\/span>
\nDo you think the CRPF killed Naxals or innocent villagers on April 15 in Latehar?
\n<\/strong>See, often the Naxals threaten to kill innocent villagers if they don\u2019t do their bidding. In my own village in the Giridih district, the Naxals put pressure on villagers to not sell their timber to the neighbouring villages of Bihar. I asked the police also to threaten the villagers to sell timber in Bihar, so that one threat cancels out the other. What does one do? How else does one counter the fear created by the Naxals? But, yes, as for the April 15 incident, the government must order an inquiry, as the villagers have demanded.<\/span>
\nDoes the train hijack mean the government has lost out to the Naxals?<\/strong>
\nJharkhand is a small state and the government has enough muscle.<\/span>
\nUnion Home Minister P Chidambaram says the Naxals are bandits bereft of ideology.<\/strong>
\nSo who is ideologically driven in all these big parties? Even amongst the Naxals, few are ideologically driven and only two or three are ideologically inspired and they use people who\u2019ve gone astray to do their bidding.<\/span>
\nIt is also alleged that the Naxals take hefty cuts from public funds.
\n<\/strong>Obviously, there is no straight way, so they take the way of \u201clevy\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had arrested many Naxals under Pota. But Advani called me and said,\u2018why are you doing this?\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you see a role for the Centre in fighting the Maoist insurgency?
\n<\/strong>The Centre\u2019s role can only be limited. They can give money. But only the state police and administration can bring a resolution.<\/span>
\nDo you think Naxalism can be eliminated in Jharkhand?<\/strong>
\nPositively. It will take two years to eliminate it, provided the governments of Bihar and Jharkhand work in unison.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jharkhand\u2019s former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi tells Ajit Sahi that a tough stand is needed against the rebels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":64369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[8286,8626,8832,8833,1176,955,8821,8823,6941,1181,1573,8834,8826,6916],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}