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CPI (Maoist) spokesperson Abhay criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s rejection of peace talks with armed Maoists. He accused the Centre of continuing attacks despite a ceasefire and claimed the government aims to displace adivasis under the guise of anti-Maoist operations

Kothagudem: CPI (Maoist) Party Central Committee spokesperson Abhay took serious exception to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement in Telangana that the Centre would not go for peace talks with Maoists carrying firearms.

In a statement released to the media, he said the Chhattisgarh BJP unit, in its last election manifesto, promised to hold peace talks with Maoists, and soon after coming to power, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai made an announcement in that direction.

Contrary to the party’s stand, Shah dismissed the possibility of holding peace talks with Maoists, who were always ready for peace talks. But the Centre was not. After the Peace Talks Committee in Telangana called for talks in March, Maoists urged the government to create an amicable situation and announced a voluntary ceasefire for a month, Abhay said.

Even after the Maoists announced the ceasefire, security forces continued their offence against naxals and killed over 80 Maoists, including the party’s Central Committee general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju. Several innocent adivasis were also killed.

Since the time of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Centre held peace talks with militants carrying firearms in the eastern States, and the same was being continued by the Modi government. It indicates the falsity of the Union Home Minister’s stand on peace talks with Maoists.

On the day Basavaraju was killed, the government permitted the felling of 1.20 lakh trees in Gadchiroli, which brings out the true agenda behind the denial to hold peace talks with Maoists. The government, by eliminating Maoists, wants to chase adivasis from their forest dwellings, Abhay explained.

He welcomed TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud’s condemnation of Shah’s statement and his suggestion to hold peace talks. The Congress government in Telangana should announce ceasefire first without which it lacks the moral grounds to insist the Centre or the Chhattisgarh government to hold talks with the Maoists, Abhay added.