C’garh: Red Carpet Welcome To Maoists Who Surrender, Naxal Ideology To Be Defeated By People: Shah
“Naxals who laid down arms will be accorded red carpet welcome”: Union home minister Amit Shah
RAIPUR: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday reiterated his appeal to Maoists to surrender, saying that “Naxals who laid down arms will be accorded red carpet welcome”.
Addressing the ‘National Conclave on Chhattisgarh @25, Shifting the Lens’, here, Mr. Shah said that the "Government does not want to kill anyone, but it has the responsibility to protect the people (from red terror)”.
“Red carpet welcome will be accorded to the Maoists who surrender”, he said.
Mr. Shah said that Maoist menace will be eradicated by March 31 but cautioned that people should be aware of the Naxal ideology which believes in resolving issues through guns.
The Maoist ideology has brought miseries to the tribals and pushed the tribal regions to backwardness.
He said that the Maoist movement is not confined to only one state, but it spreads to 12 states.
There is a perception that Maoism is linked to lack of development, he said and added that “I do not agree to it”.
Rather, Maoist movement is the sole factor for the backwardness of the tribal regions. Maoism has stopped all development works in the Naxal-affected areas pushing them to backwardness.
“Maoist menace will be eradicated by March 31 and the Naxal ideology will be defeated by people”, he reiterated.
Mr. Shah said that communism is on the way out in the country. Communism has already been defeated by people in the states of West Bengal and Tripura.
The communists are now ruling in only one state of Kerala. But BJP has already set its foot in Trivandrum, he said.
The Union minister said that Chhattisgarh is the bright example of how elimination of Maoism leads to development, and cited massive improvements in 16 indicators of development in the state, as case in point.
He recounted how Maoists destroyed schools, primary health Centres (PHC), and community health Centres (CHC) in Bastar the last four decades, depriving generations of tribals in the region of basic education and healthcare facilities.
Maoists blocked development in Bastar for decades like a snake blocking a path with raised hood.
In the last 25 years since Chhattisgarh was formed, the state witnessed both BJP-rule and Congress-rule.
Barring Congress-rule of five years under Bhupesh Bagel, Chhattisgarh has witnessed massive development in the BJP-rule in the remaining 20 years.
While the state came out of the tag of ‘BIMARU’ state under the 15-year-BJP rule of Raman Singh, the current BJP government led by Vishnu Deo Sai accelerated the pace of development in the state.
He described the Congress-rule under Bhupesh Baghel as a corrupt one and said that his rule had made Chhattisgarh synonymous with corruption and scandals.
Mr. Shah accused the Bhupesh Baghel government of sheltering Maoists, and asserted that “I have no hesitation to say that the Congress government (under Bhupesh Baghel) sheltered Maoists”.
