War of words on the Darbha massacre enacted by Maoists Saturday last refused to die down even as Congress stepped up pressure on the State Government with Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Charandas Mahant leading the charge from the front terming a letter allegedly circulated by spokesman of Dandkaranya Special Zonal Committee of Maoists Gudsa Usendi as fake and part of the conspiracy.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi also charged the State Government for not providing security to Opposition leaders. Jogi said “The blame of leaving the Opposition leaders unprotected and thus get killed by Maoists will never be erased from the face of the government.” Charging the State Government of being inefficient and insensitive Jogi said nothing happened in the case of murder of Superintendent of Police Vinod Choubey as well as 76 security personnel by Maoist insurgents.
One of the close relatives of the slain CGPCC chief Nand Kumar Patel also raised questions about the circumstances leading to Maoist attack on the Congress convoy in which Patel, his son Dinesh, Mahendra Karma, Udai Mudliyar and others were killed by insurgents who reportedly searched for these leaders in the convoy calling them by names. Patel’s kin termed the incident as a conspiracy to get killed political opponents.
Maninderjit Singh Bitta, national president of anti terrorist front and former president of youth Congress who also visited Raipur and met injured persons in the city hospitals held the state government responsible for the tragedy. Had the government provided adequate security, the massacre could have been avoided easily, he said.
Taking the opposition charges at face value, Bharatiya Janata Party state spokesman Ajay Chandrakar refuted the charges of conspiracy saying that Congress leaders would better be involved in the conspiracy if at all it was a conspiracy. He also criticised the opposition leaders for terming the letter of Gudsa Usendi as creation of the ruling side.
Chief Minister Raman Singh and BJP national President Rajnath Singh who visited late Mahendra Karma’s family members at Dantewada on Wednesday termed the opposition charges not only as baseless but also unfortunate as the opposition tried to gain mileage even out of a Maoist attack, which is not only a national scourge but also needed to be fought unitedly.