The flawed policy adopted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is helping Naxalism to grow in the state, the Opposition Congress alleged on Monday.
Reacting on the statement given by BJP national spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman, state Congress spokesman Sushil Anand Shukla said the BJP should first analyse why its own government failed to tackle the problem in Chhattisgarh. Slamming Sitharaman for accusing the central government of not being serious on Naxal problem, Shukla said the Chhattisgarh government has failed to address the problem for the past ten years, in the state.
“It is the BJP whose leaders in the state and the centre have been looking at the Naxal problem on the basis of their own political gain” the Congress alleged. The BJP never had any intention to create a Naxal-free India. This is the reason why the party did not adopt any principle to bring the Naxal problem under control. The huge funds it received from the central government to stem left wing extremism, were misused, and misappropriated.
The link between the BJP and the Maoists is so strong that whenever any senior leaders of BJP and RSS visit Bastar area they use to stay and take food in the house of the Chopra families who are well-known for their Maoist connection, he said. When the central government proposed to create National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) to deal with internal security threat, it was the chief ministers of BJP ruled states which opposed it, he said.
They included Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, he said. Chief Minister Raman Singh himself is the head of the Unified Command created to take on Naxal, instead of criticising the centre Sitharaman should ask him what step he has taken, Shukla said.