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Need to address root cause of Naxalism: Sonia
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 14
For the first time since the gruesome Dantewada massacre of 76 security personnel, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has let her mind known on the issue by endorsing the government’s two-pronged strategy to deal with the Maoist violence.

There have been visible differences within the party on the issue of tackling left wing extremism. An attempt was also made by the Opposition in Parliament to pin down the government over “differences” within the Congress and also with the government over the Naxal policy.

In the latest issue of the party mouthpiece “Sandesh”, the Congress president emphasised for root causes of the problem to be addressed. And at the same time, she also said that acts of terror should be addressed “decisively” and “forcefully”.

“While we must address acts of terror decisively and forcefully, we have to address the root cause of Naxalism,” she said in a statement that endorsed both the Congress and the government stand on the issue. Sonia also made it clear that it was the government’s flawed development model in most backward tribal districts that was responsible for the current situation.

“The rise of Naxalism is a reflection of the need for our development initiatives to reach grass roots, especially in the most backward tribal districts. This is why our government is putting targeted development schemes for our most backward districts,” she said.

Congress Working Committee meetings in the past have issued resolutions on Naxalism, identifying it as a socio-economic problem, while talking of a political solution. But in the backdrop of Dantewada incident and the controversy over Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh differing with Home Minister P Chidambaram these are Sonia’s first comment, therefore the importance.

Following an article by Digvijay Singh in a national daily, an attempt was made by the Opposition to pin down the government over “differences” with the Congress on the Naxal policy. There were also speculations of a sharp divide within the party on strategy to deal with Maoist activities.

After Dantewada incident, there was a point of view within the party that use of force against Naxals had become necessary at this stage and soft pedalling of the issue would not work any more. But the other line of thought was that the problem was a strictly socio-economic problem and not a law and order situation and therefore had to be dealt with accordingly.