Home Minister P Chidambaram ruled out military operations as an option to tackle the Maoist menace and said it is a matter of "ethical consideration" not to do so.
"Sri Lanka might have used the military to tackle the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam but we in India can't do that. We ought not try this in India," he said.
Chidambaram said referring to the Maoist menace as one of the three major internal security threats plaguing the country. The Home Minister said "we may have the capability but we ought not do it."
Pointing at the terror threats from jihadi forces, he said the idea of cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan needed to be redefined as the terrorists also took inspiration from the Middle-east.
"It (jihadi terrorism) is not just from across the border in Pakistan but extends beyond to the middle-east also. We have to redefine what cross-border terrorism means," Chidambaram said at a book release function in New Delhi.
He said insurgency in the Northeast was the third internal threat but added that it was almost under control. India had the means to "contain, control and resolve" the insurgency in the Northeastern states and Maoist menace in Central India but religious terrorism would never be under control, he said pointing out that there were new dimensions of terror groups such as from Hindu fundamentalist and to a small extent from the Sikh groups.
Chidambaram said Naxalism was a problem that was within control, but the means to contain it was still being debated
by the government. "It is a good debate. At the end of it, we will choose a path. Hopefully, we will come out with the right path," he said.
Noting that government was to survive and also get re-elected, the Home Minister said the bureaucracy was bound by various factors when it decides on a path to tackle issues such as Maoism. "It could be a right or a wrong course. It is a fact that policy itself will impact the scenario," he added.
