The Hindu : Front Page : Ban on Maoists will not serve any purpose: Karat

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Tuesday, Jun 23, 2009
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Ban on Maoists will not serve any purpose: Karat

Special Correspondent

“We have to combat them politically and administratively”

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said on Monday that the ban imposed by the Centre on Maoists would not serve any purpose.

“Our stand in West Bengal is that we have to combat [Maoists] politically and administratively,” general secretary Prakash Karat told The Hindu.

His point of view was not in response to the decision of the Centre, which could ban organisations, but the party line, he said.

Combination strategy

Mr. Karat said a political strategy was necessary, because the Maoists had to be isolated from the sections of the people who associated themselves with them, and a firm administrative action was needed when they indulged in violence. “A combination [of political and administrative] measures is the most effective.”

All-India Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas said the Maoist movement could not be seen as a mere law and order issue, and banning it would not solve the problem.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the government should also act against organisations that had ties with the Maoists.

Ban no cure, says Bardhan

Hyderabad Special Correspondent writes:

CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan has said imposing a ban on the CPI (Maoist) is not a cure to the problem and the CPI will prefer countering such outfits politically.

“That has been our stand and that will continue,” Mr. Bardhan said. He extended his party’s support to the operations launched jointly by the State and Central governments in West Bengal to recapture the areas occupied and declared as ‘liberated provinces’ by the Maoists.

Asserting that the rule of law should be established in all parts of the State, he, however, said the operations should be conducted “as peacefully as possible” and the common people should not be unduly harassed. “Even if the operation is conducted slowly and steadily, efforts should be made to see that harassment is not unleashed on the people,” he said.

Mr. Bardhan was here to review the setback suffered by the party in the recent elections.

He told journalists that the Left parties could not effectively take their contribution, like the enactment of the NREGA and the Tribal Rights Act and its fight against dilution of government equity in public sector undertakings, to the people.

Nuclear deal

Mr. Bardhan defended the Left’s decision to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance, over differences on the India-U.S. nuclear deal. But he said that more than the timing of the withdrawal, the basis on which the decision was taken “was perhaps not desirable.”

“When the elections were focussed on issues confronting the people, it became difficult to go to them and explain the whole stand,” he said.

Electoral reforms

He stressed the need for comprehensive electoral reforms facilitating election on the basis of proportional representation. The present system was corrupted because of the use of “tremendous money power” which was harmful to Indian democracy.

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