Let’s talk straight about truce, PC tells Maoists

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday insisted on a formal and unconditional truce offer from the CPI(Maoist) and made it clear that the Naxalites would have to abjure violence before the government responds to the 72-day “ceasefire” declared by senior leader Koteshwara Rao alias Kishanji.

“I would like a short, simple statement saying that we will abjure violence and we are prepared for talks,” Union home minister P Chidambaram said in a terse response to Kishanji’s 72-day truce call made on Monday through the media. Insisting that no riders should be attached to the formal offer, the home minister told the CPI(Maoist) that he would like “no ifs, buts and no conditions.”

Mr Chidambaram gave his fax number — 011-23093155 — to facilitate a prompt communication from the Maoists. Kishanji’s aides later claimed to have faxed back a cellphone number — 9734695789 — on the MHA control room fax mentioned by the home minister, and asked the government to call by 5 pm on February 25.

Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday made it clear that counter-operations against Naxalites continue, as of now, across the affected states including Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Orissa and Maharashtra. “There is no change in our strategy to concentrate forces in large numbers in a small area, leaving the Maoists no chance to retaliate, followed by a rush of development once the area has been cleared and administration brought in,” a senior MHA official pointed out.

The fact that Centre is not yet ready to look at Kishanji’s truce call seriously stems from apprehensions that the offer was possibly made without the full backing of the other CPI(Maoist) leaders. The intelligence agencies have also gathered “some leads” that the CPI(Maoist) leadership was divided on the ceasefire proposal when it was considered at a recent meeting of its senior leaders.

There is an assessment that Kishanji may have made the truce offer unilaterally apprehending a threat to himself in view of the public anger generated by the Maoists’ carnage of 24 people, including 23 EFR personnel, at a security camp in Silda. According to a senior official, the Maoists were not yet under enough pressure to be driven to offer ceasefire. “That pressure will come if we nab some top leader such as Ganpathy or Kishanji himself,” the official pointed out.

Incidentally, hours after the ceasefire offer was made, Maoists mounted a fresh attack on a CRPF camp at Katapahari in Midnapore district. At around 10.30 pm on Monday, Maoists attacked the camp housing state police and CRPF personnel. In the gunfight that ensued, a Maoist leader was killed.

Even as the government goes about establishing the authenticity of Monday’s truce offer as well as Kishanji’s locus standi on behalf of Maoists, it is firm that the truce call would have to be made directly to the Centre and not through the media or any mediator. “Mediators may be engaged once the peace process starts,” a senior home ministry official said.

Importantly, the Centre is clear that it will not decide unilaterally on the truce offer. Once a formal offer is made, Mr Chidambaram will discuss it with the prime minister and thereafter also hold consultations with the Naxalism-hit states before formulating the government’s response to the Maoists’ peace moves.