New Delhi, November 1
The political war being fought between the UPA and the CPM over the Maoists menace in the country took a new turn yesterday, with the CPM lashing out at Home Minister P Chidambaram for insinuating that the Marists and Maoists were friends until recently. The CPM has, in fact, been cornering the Congress by alleging links between its ally - the Trinamool Congress and the Maoists in West Bengal.

“It is surprising that the Union Home Minister has chosen to ignore the history of the naxalite movement. Far from being the CPM's “comrades in arms”, the Maoists have always been unremittingly hostile to the CPM. After they split away from us in the late 1960s, the ultra-Left elements in West Bengal targetted the party and hundreds of our cadres and supporters lost their lives,” Karat said in a statement yesterday, turning the heat on Chidambaram and asking him to sort out his contradictions with cabinet colleague and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee instead.

“Evidently, the Home Minister is put in an unenviable position when a colleague of his takes positions that are contrary to that of his ministry and government. Right from the start of the joint operations in Lalgarh, the Union Railway Minister has asked for recall of the Central Paramilitary forces. She had supported a front organisation of the Maoists. Another minister of her party has publicly admitted to knowing in advance about the Rajdhani train stoppage,” said the CPM general secretary, asking Chidambaram to desist from “making irrelevant feints against the CPM.”

Karat also dismissed the Home Minister’s claims that CPIM saw the Maoists as their allies in fighting the bourgeois Congress. The fact is that the earlier Congress-led UPA regime survived with CPM support for four years, Karat said, rubbishing Chidambaram’s remark that the CPM’s attitude towards the Maoists was different till the last session of Parliament.

“This thought is misplaced. We are against laws that have draconian provisions in the name of fighting terrorism. We are for the Maoists to be fought ideologically and politically apart from resorting to firm administrative measures when they indulge in violence. The Maoists cannot be equated with the Laskhar-e-Toiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The fact that the Home Minister has offered to talk to the Maoists, if they stop the violence, itself recognizes this difference,” said the CPM chief.