The clash between Kerala’s Government Chief Whip PC George and Congress Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala over the Police Department’s move to purchase modern weapons including AK 47 rifles worth crores of rupees to fight the Maoists has hit the credibility of the police’s battle against the left extremists in the Adivasi regions of the State.
The criticism of George, vice-president of the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest constituent of the Congress-led ruling UDF, that there is no justification for building such huge stock of weapons spending several crores to fight “just ten or 20” Maoists has put the Government in a difficult spot, especially as it has no information on the exact magnitude of the extremist threat.
The Home Minister’s failure to respond to the specific charges leveled by George has created a feeling that several of the claims by the police on the Maoist menace need not be true and could be part of a plan by the politician-bureaucracy nexus to create a scare among the people intended at helping the quarry and other mafia operating in the forest areas.
According to George, the plan to acquire weapons in the name of anti-Maoist operations is just a ploy devised by certain officials of the Police Department to make money. He even said that he did not trust the police’s claim that the Maoists had exchanged fire with them on December 7 in the jungles at Vellamunda in Wayanad district.
“I have my doubts over this claim about the exchange of fire. The police version is that they had fired at the Maoists from a distance of 30 metres. Even then, nobody had been hurt, they are saying. I am not a fool to believe such stories,” George said the other day, adding that he would soon undertake a trip to the Adivasi regions to study matters like this.
Though the police had claimed that they had recovered some spent AK 47 bullets from the firing scene and pieces of clothing and caps from the interior jungle in the search after the firing, they have not yet produced these articles before any court or the Press. This has added to the lack of credibility of the claim.
There are even allegations to the effect that stories about the Maoist menace are being used by the Congress-led Government to divert public attention from the serious issues like its volte-face on the plan to ban liquor and scandals like the one involving Finance Minister KM Mani who had allegedly taken Rs 1 crore as bribe from bar owners.
According to political analysts in the State capital, Thiruvananthapuram, George’s criticisms can be part of an attempt that had originated within the Congress party to put the entire responsibility over the Maoist situation on the shoulders of Home Minister Chennithala. “It is obvious that George is not speaking for himself,” alleged a Congress leader close to the Minister.
That not many Congress leaders had come out in support of Chennithala after George leveled such serious charges against him suggests that there were people within the groupism-ridden Congress who wanted this to happen, he said. Chennithala heads the Congress’s ‘I’ group which is in fierce war with the ‘A’ group headed by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
According to sources in the Police Department, the move is to purchase 500 AK 47 rifles as part of a plan to constitute a special anti-Maoist force in the State with 300 personnel. Several security experts are of the opinion that the Maoist situation in Kerala is yet to grow into a level which necessitates such a huge response.
As per reports, Maoists had held eight attacks in the State between November 10 and January 2. These included attacks on the office of a gelatin-manufacturing company, a tourist resort, some Forest Department offices in Wayanad and Palakkad districts, outlets of KFC and McDonald’s in Palakkad town and an exchange of fire with the police in Wayanad district.