The second phase of the Budget session of Parliament commenced on Thursday with all the attention turning on Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.
Internal reports of the Central Reserve Police Force, which has just lost 75 personnel in the Maoists attack in Dantewada, say the force's field commanders had pointed out lack of training, work pressure and communication gaps as some reasons for losses in operations.
Working for the adivasis' well-being through means that secure their rights, honour their dignity and build a shared prosperity will make the Maoists irrelevant, says Rajni Bakshi.
Calling his resignation episode a closed chapter, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said he decided to quit because the Central Reserve Police Force came under his charge but that does not mean state governments have no role in tackling the Maoists. "The resignation was indeed tendered. The prime minister has rejected it. The matter is a closed chapter," he told reporters, declining to talk further on the issue.
With coordination issues between central and state forces being raised in the wake of the Dantewada massacre, the Central Reserve Police Force on Thursday said it is conducting anti-Maoist operations in close consulation with the Chhattisgarh police and a joint offensive will be carried out.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday said the brutal Maoist attack in Dantewada, in which 76 security personnel were killed, is a reminder that no state government can single-handedly tackle Naxal violence and called for a coordinated action by the Centre and the states.
Home Minister P Chidambaram will make an on-the-spot assessment and review the situation in Chhattisgarh after the Maoists carried out the deadliest attack and killed 76 CRPF personnel.
Forty personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force, involved in Operation Green Hunt, were killed on Tuesday morning when they walked into a trap laid by Maoists at Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.The attack took place when a CRPF patrol party was returning from a road opening duty in the Naxalite-infested Mukrana forest in the district, at approximately 6 am. The CRPF patrol party was totally taken aback by the Maoists.
Five more bodies of personnel belonging to the elite anti-Naxal force Commando Battalion for Resolute Action have been recovered from the Dantewada Forests in Chattisgarh.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Tuesday disfavoured use of air force in dealing with Naxalism, a day after Home Minister P Chidambaram said he was trying to 'convince"' the Cabinet on providing air support to anti-Naxal operations.
Sodi Sambo can now have her treatment done in New Delhi. Five days after the 28-year-old tribal woman from Gompad village in Dantewada district was detained by the Chhattisgarh government on suspicious grounds, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the state administration to permit her to travel to New Delhi.
The UP police said the arrests were made following an operation based on a tip off received in the aftermath of the Dantewada massacre, in which 76 security personnel were killed by the Naxals.
Faced with frequent disruptions of Question Hour in Lok Sabha, Speaker Meira Kumar said on Friday that she would soon consult all political parties on conducting it in the evening.
With Maoist insurgents offering more lethal battles, police battalions will need a transformation to standards very close to infantry units. Even with the best equipment and training, they will not succeed if they do not have a dynamic leadership, writes Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Give the adivasis honour and dignity and the pool of discontent in which the Maoists swim will dry up, writes Nitin Desai
Home Minister P Chidambaram should work more and speak less and control his "tone and tenor", Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday.
We cannot say that development-related issues are long term while the immediate task is to annihilate the Naxalites.
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's office on Thursday received a fresh e-mail threat from suspected Maoists.According to the Orissa police, the e-mail threatened to carry out a Dantewada-type massacre in the state. This is the second e-mail threat received by the Orissa chief minister's office over the past fortnight. On March 27, the Orissa CMO received an e-mail threat, which warned about plans to blow up Patnaik's residence and important monuments in the state.
'A demonstration of the force by the State will wean away a large portion of sympathisers. The hardcore ideologically motivated cadres are not likely to be affected by this, but it will ease the path of the impending operations by lowering the morale of the Naxal rank and file and raising that of the police forces as well as common people.'
Tuesday's Naxal attack at Dantewada, in which 75 security personnel were killed, is a sure wake up call for the authorities; and according to intelligence agencies, there will be more such attacks in the days to come. Reports Vicky Nanjappa
The CRPF and local police on anti-Naxal operations perform a thankless job but a few basic counter-insurgency measures could have prevented the deadly Dantewada attack, writes B Raman.
Four jawans of the Central Industrial Force were killed and two others injured when their jeep was blown up in a landmine blast triggered by the Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, the police said.
According to the notice, "The conduct (wearing sunglasses) is in violation of the India Services (Conduct) Rules, Section (3), 1968."
The first prime minister to visit this Maoist hotbed in three decades, Narendra Modi on Saturday asked Naxals to abjure gun and allow peace so that the macabre drama of death will end to pave the way for development.
Krishnakumar P reports how a traumatised 'villager' led forces to the Maoist weapons manufacturing factory inside the forests of Chhattisgarh.
Ten persons, including two Central Reserve Police Force personnel and four special police officers, were killed on Wednesday in a landmine blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, police said.The incident took place at Sirguda village in Bastar region under Injram police station area, when Naxals blew up a tractor carrying the special police officers and jawans. The blast occurred when a joint patrol team was returning from their duty.
The toll is likely to mount, as more details were yet to emerge.
Counter insurgency operations alone will not end Naxalism as the government needs to address its "root cause", which is the issue of forests and land rights, former BSF Director General E N Rammohan, who probed the Dantewada killings last month, said Friday.
Are the recent attacks by Maoists desperate attempts to take the revolutionary struggle to a level which would precipitate a crisis in which it would be impossible for right thinking people not to take sides? asks Apooravanand.
The five young police officers -- Avinash Mohanty of Bijapur, Amresh Kumar Mishra of Dantewada, Rahul Bhagat of Narayanpur, Ajay Yadav of Kanker and Sundarraj P of Bastar -- have engaged more local people into the operations and are reaping rich dividends in steeming the naxal tide.
Vanvasi Chetna Asram founder Himanshu Kumar while reacting to the letter dashed by Chhattisgarh Governor ESL Naramsimhan to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday asking Union Home Minister P Chidambaram not to visit Naxal-hit areas in Raipur and Dantewada on January7, told rediff.com, "It means that the state government has something to hide."
In the first operation of its kind in a long time, the Chhattisgarh state police, the Special Task Force and the Central Reserve Police Force launched a combined offensive against Naxalites in the forests spanning two highly Naxal-infested districts to register their first major success in many months.
In an unusual way, Governor of Chhatisgarh ESL Narasimhan wrote to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to resist the temptation of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to visit Naxal affected areas in Raipur and Dandewada on January 7, 2010. During this visit P Chidambaram shall undertake a padayatra on Jan 7, 2009.
"For me, they (Maoists) are no enemies at all. If they are under some wrong notions, we need to talk to them," Rao said in the Rajya Sabha, while participating in a debate on the Dantewada massacre.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday asked Home Minister P Chidambaram not to resign in the wake of Maoists' massacre of 76 security personnel in Dantewada, saying he should 'not show his back' as it would mean a victory for the Naxals.
After suffering a major blow at the hands of Maoists in Chhattisgarh, the Central Reserve Police Force on Friday said it will not let the blood of its men go waste and take the battle against the Left-wing extremists forward with a hardened resolve. "We will not let this blood go waste. I pledge to carry forward the battle," CRPF Special Director General (North) N K Tripathi said at the force's Valour Day event in New Delhi.
The Centre on Wednesday announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 15 lakh for kin of each of the 75 Central Reserve Police Force men killed in the Naxal attack on Tuesday in Chattisgarh's Dantewada district.
The incident took place late evening at Kokanara village, nearly 375 km from Raipur, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) T J Longkumer said.
Chhattisgarh House rule says that anyone entering the well of the House would be automatically suspended.
Police sources said bodies of Jagargunda Station House Officer Hemant Singh and four others were recovered from the area