The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Government-naxalite talks fail to make headway

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 17, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Government-naxalite talks fail to make headway

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 16 . Negotiations between the Government and the naxalites failed to make headway on the second day today as the CPI (Maoists) and CPI-ML (Janashakti) representatives insisted on a commitment to end repression against the people's movements before taking up the main agenda.

Four demands

The naxalites put forth four demands — withdrawal of criminal cases against participants in people's struggles, release of political prisoners, scrapping of rewards on the heads of revolutionaries and a check on the activities of anti-social elements and armed mafia gangs. This came as a surprise to the Government side, led by the Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy, which expected the naxalites to abide by their resolve to take up "people's agenda."

An unseemly incident occurred at the end of the day when some plainclothesmen reportedly made brash remarks at women guards of the People's Guerrilla Army waiting outside, but the naxalite leaders prevented the situation from getting out of hand.

After eight-hour long negotiations, Mr. Jana Reddy told reporters that the issues raised by naxalites would be referred to the Government and the final decision made known before conclusion of the current round of negotiations. He did not rule out the first phase spilling over beyond Monday.

Mr. Reddy said the main agenda, including land distribution and self-reliance, would be discussed on Sunday afternoon. The Government had asked the naxalites to submit their strategy papers so that they could be interpolated with the discussions on the main agenda. This would help avoid situations such as the one faced today.

Speaking to reporters separately, the naxal leaders, Ramakrishna and Amar, said the atmosphere at today's talks was cordial and had paved the way for discussion of the "people's agenda" tomorrow and for the subsequent two days. They said they had asked the Government to release five life convicts — Ganesh, Samudrala Mallesh, Seelam Ramesh, Sridhar and Kotagiri Veeraiah — who had participated in people's movements.

They demanded scrapping of conspiracy cases against the naxalites and those relating to famine raids, providing food and shelter to extremists.

However, they sought no concession from the Government on the cases booked in the assassination attempt on the former Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, at Alipiri, last year.

Mr. Ramakrishna hoped that the Government would accept the naxalites' plea for conducting the next round of talks at Visakhapatnam, Anantapur and Warangal.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh

News Update

Stories in this Section