Sushilkumar Shinde defends writing letter to Nitish Kumar on Maoist problem

NEW DELHI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is said to be preparing a strong reply to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s letter to him on the “alarming” Naxal situation in Bihar even as the Janata Dal (United) MPs on Thursday created a furore on Parliament demanding an apology froom the home minister.

ET was the first to report on December 10 that Shinde wrote a strongly worded letter to Kumar last week, saying the co-ordination between Bihar Police and central forces had broken down and Bihar must have a relook at its strategy against Naxals.

In his reply, Kumar is expected to question whether there is a uniform policy in the first place to fight Naxals and lament that the Centre has not given funds as per the state’s repeated requests to expand Kumar’s brain-child development scheme, Aapki Sarkar Aapke Dwaar, across Bihar to wean away people from Naxalism, a top Bihar government official told ET on the condition of anonymity.

“The CM will soon send a reply to the home minister’s letter. The fight against Naxals has to be a joint fight by the state and the Centre,” Bihar DGP Abhayanand told ET.

Kumar is also expected to tell Shinde that in first-ever such initiative in the country, Bihar Police recently attached the assets of top Naxal leaders under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

“The Centre should appreciate that development is a key factor in eradicating Naxalism and bringing people in the mainstream…which Bihar is doing. Just writing letters will not finish Naxalism. Bihar’s policy is three-pronged – political, development and security and not merely a security-oriented approach…the problem has to be tackled through grassroots empowerment,” a top Bihar official said, pointing out that Bihar’s requests for more CRPF battalions have also been consistently ignored.

Bihar may also point out that a CRPF officer posted in Bihar was recently arrested for leaking information to Naxals and this may have compromised the success of operations.

The JD (U) has also not taken kindly to Shinde’s letter, with its MPs disrupting proceedings in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Thursday and storming into the well carrying placards that said the home minister should make an “apology” for writing the “insulting letter”.

After the furore in Parliament, Shinde spoke to reporters defending his letter and said the same was in the interest of the state. “The Centre is concerned over the Bihar situation. It is the Bihar Police which is facing the Naxals and its men have died. So, I have written the letter flagging the issues,” Shinde said.