Speaking at the Sardar Patel memorial lecture organised by Prasar Bharati, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said India's left-wing extremism can be solved only if India's polity can rise above partisan political considerations and set aside old Centre versus state arguments to work concertedly to restore people's faith in the administration.
Rejecting the Centre's charge that the Odisha government has failed to contain left-wing extremism, the state's director general of police on Tuesday claimed that Naxal violence had declined in 2011 compared to the year before. "The Naxal situation in most parts of the state had been controlled while it was a cause of concern for the state government in areas bordering Chattishgarh," Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj wrote to Union Home Secretary R K Singh.
Expressing concern over increase in infiltration attempts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday that the Centre and the states should launch coordinated efforts to tackle internal security threats.
Eighty five-year old Swedish writer and political commentator Jan Myrdal was in India recently. Son of Nobel laureates Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal, Jan talks to Business Standard on elections, politics and the Left-wing extremism in the country.
Naxal violence claimed maximum lives this year as compared to terrorist and insurgency incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, the government on Tuesday told Parliament.
Seeking the cooperation of States in dealing with Left-wing extremism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday asked the Planning Commission to design a holistic development programme for Naxal-affected areas.
National security advisor Ajit Doval on Friday suggested that various central armed police forces of the country should have "jointness" and interoperability among themselves like the ongoing plan for the defence forces.
Maoists violence, militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and insurgency in the Northeast continued to be the top areas of concern for the country's internal security in 2011 with Left wing extremism claiming the most lives.
The Centre on Thursday said it was confident of overcoming the Maoist problem in the next three years and had prepared a two-pronged strategy of initiating development and police action in the affected areas.
Chhattisgarh, at the centre of the Maoist corridor and which has borne the brunt of vicious naxal attacks in recent times, wants an integrated action plan for development to check the Left Wing Extremism in the country.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said an "integrated approach" was needed to tackle the Naxal menace as "enforcement action alone" would lead to their wider alienation.
...close to the 2024 general election. The BJP calling the Congress 'seasonal Hindu' is as laughable as the saffron party sparing itself the title of 'seasonal extreme Hindu.'
How else should one describe its election campaigns of the past years?
It was typically obsessive religion and personality cult with economic development for fig leaf, asserts Shyam G Menon.
Questioning the government's approach towards Maoists, members of an official panel that had looked into the issue of Left-wing extremism have said that instead of telling the ultras to abjure violence, both sides should declare a ceasefire and create an atmosphere for talks. "If the government is serious enough to alleviate the tribal problem, then it should persuade the Maoists to come for talks," said chairman of the panel and former IAS officer Debabrata Bandopadhyay.
A small-scale businessman was found dead at his house in Kottayam in Kerala, following which the family members raised grave charges against a Karnataka-based private bank on Tuesday.
The Andhra Pradesh government defended in the Supreme Court its controversial decision to deploy elite anti-Naxatite squad 'Greyhounds' to quell the volatile Telangana agitation in Hyderabad's Osmania University campus on Thursday.
India has evidence that social media platforms are being used to raise terror funds, NIA director general Dinkar Gupta said on Thursday, underlining that the issue will be deliberated during a two-day international ministerial conference on countering terror financing.
With the defence ministry averse to sparing the army to fight Naxals, the Union home ministry will "fend for themselves" and take a fresh look at its strategy to fight Left-wing extremism including reorienting the available paramilitary forces. This was seen as a fall out of Thursday evening's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which failed to arrive at a consensus over deployment of Army for fighting Naxals.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday asked Naxal-hit states to double the capacity of their police training institutes as also police recruitment to fight the menace of Left-wing extremism.
Gearing up for a major offensive against Naxals, the government is contemplating to involve the Army to deal with the Left-wing extremism.
It is necessary to make incremental progress, state by state, rather than aiming for an illusory knock-out punch against the Maoists, write Dr Shanthie Mariet D'Souza and Dr Bibhu Prasad Routray.
Addressing a seminar on "Left Wing Extremism Situation in India", Pillai said the Maoists might be getting the help of some former soldiers in carrying out subversive activities.
Shah said that the people of the country will decide about the principal opposition party to BJP in the 2024 polls and they have not given this label to any party.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will visit Raipur on Monday to monitor the coordination of strategies to combat Left-wing extremism in the region. Chidambaram will emphasis the importance of verifying and forwarding intelligence inputs to the Centre. He will hold a coordination meeting with the director-general of police and the joint director of the Intelligence Bureau posted in Raipur.
He accused Naxalites of using tribal villagers as a shield.
On a visit to Maoist-affected states of Chattisgarh and Jharkand, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said there is no move to involve the army in the fight against Naxals who pose the "gravest challenge."
The Maoists suspect that the Centre might launch an assault on their de facto headquarters in Chhattisgarh's forest areas soon after the monsoon and have asked their party and cadres to prepare for the 'new brutal offensive being unleashed by the United Progressive Alliance government'.The Maoists suspect that the Chhattisgarh government will very soon launch a major offensive in the massive Abujmaad forests, which is widely known as their military headquarters.
Not only did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reject Union Home Minister P Chidambaram letter of resignation, but the PM also stood solidly behind him, by directing Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar to write to all Union Ministers not to criticise the government's handling of the Maoist issue and not to vent their feelings on Left Wing extremism in public fora.
The much anticipated full-fledged operation of the special anti-Naxal force -- Cobrain Left-wing extremism-hit states is set to start soon.
The Opposition will be nailing down the government in the winter session of the Parliament starting Thursday for a 'confused' policy on tackling the Maoists -- ruling the roost in 223 districts in 13 states, despite killing of over 2600 people by them in the last three years.
All the seven states hit by Left wing extremism have agreed on a joint action to confront the menace firmly and decisively, and the Centre will provide them full support in terms of security forces and funds, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
Reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim that Naxal problem is the biggest challenge, Bhartiya Janata Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar found the claim "amusing".
The Centre has promoted Vijay Raman, a senior Indian Police Service officer as a special director general of Central Reserve Police Force to exclusively handle the left-wing extremism challenging the country.
Of the 156 choppers, 66 would be inducted by the Indian Air Force while the rest 90 would be acquired by the Indian Army.
The clearance to raise the 10,000-strong Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), under the command and control of the Central Reserve Police Force, was given last evening by the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by the prime minister.
Citing a Tamil daily's reportage, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday alleged that the Tamil Nadu government administered temples have barred puja for Lord Ram on the day of the consecration of the grand temple in Ayodhya, which was dismissed by the state as a false news with ulterior motives.
This must be the first time in India's history that it has found itself bracketed with countries in a category which political scientists will not rate very highly if only because the group recalls Nazi Germany as one of its most infamous past members, notes Amulya Ganguli.
Singh also said that India will give a befitting reply to anyone threatening its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity as it no longer remained a "weak" country.
The reasons are too private to be discussed at a round table, listed out during a seminar, or uncovered in an academic course. A proud but insomniac connoisseur murmuring in his sleep may do a better job of explaining the phenomenon than an expert on a podium. Sreehari Nair airs his thoughts.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
Led by Saharan, who is leading the batting charts with 389 runs, the team's performance got better with each match and the only time it has been pushed to a corner in the tournament is the semifinal where it pipped hosts South Africa by a solitary wicket.
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