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Monday, Jun 22, 2009
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Moots impartial federal agency

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Sunday favoured the idea of a “federal agency” to deal with terrorism and naxalism, but it should be politically impartial.

Senior party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu made this point here while drawing the government’s attention to the situation in Lalgarh in West Bengal, where Central and State forces are fighting Maoists.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said: “Lalgarh should serve as an eye-opener” in that the Centre could no longer afford to treat “naxal terrorism” as a law and order problem to be handled by the States.

Mr. Naidu agreed that the idea of a federal agency was first articulated by L.K. Advani when he was Deputy Prime Minister and then taken up by the previous Manmohan Singh government.

He said the Centre would have to build consensus among Chief Ministers by assuring them that a federal agency “would not function like the CBI ,” which, the BJP alleged, was often politically motivated and selective in taking action.

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