Kolkata: BJP on Friday accused the Congress-led UPA government of having no uniformity of policy on the Maoists and said its leaders keep making contradictory statements on the issue. "The government is only making bold statements," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu told newsmen at a training camp here for party leaders of West Bengal.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement on Maoists was contradicted by senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer and this, in turn, was being contradicted by another senior party leader Digvijay Singh, Naidu said.
He also mentioned that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had shared the dais with Maoists at a public rally at Lalgarh on August 9. "It seems that the Trinamool Congress has differences in policy with the government about the Maoists."
The former BJP president claimed that CPI(M) was initially soft on the Maoists, but has now realised how dangerous they are.
Stating that his party's policy about the Maoists was clear, he said, "we want that the Maoists must lay down arms and abide by the Constitution if (peace) talks have to take place."
Asked about Mamata Banerjee's demand for withdrawal of joint forces from the Maoist areas, Naidu said, "have as many forces as needed. But the government has to ensure that innocent people do not get killed in the operations." To a question, he said that Banerjee's initiatives to bring Maoists to the mainstream would not work.
On protests by rights groups against killing of Maoist leaders in alleged fake encounters, he said, "what have the human rights activists to say about the killing of innocent people by Maoists?"
Demanding a CBI probe into the killing of Maoist leader Azad in an encounter, he said, "if a CBI probe can be ordered into the killing Sohrabuddin, a criminal, why not for Azad?" He said the Maoists were not for development.
"The Maoists are not for development. Theirs is a fraud policy and failed policy. You cannot make people accept policies at gunpoint. In a democracy, ballot is more powerful than bullets," Naidu said. PTI
