Govt's pre-poll promise: Peace initiative with naxals takes a backseat

The government's argument for the current state of affairs has been built on the expected lines, which is centred around blaming the naxalites and their continued violence for the derailment of talks between the government and the extremists.

But the speed at which the government went back into its protective shell, saying that the talks would be possible only if the naxals lay down arms, has raised several doubts irrespective of the role played by the Maoists in the whole episode.

According to observers, the Reddy government had facilitated the first round of talks only to appeal to the general sentiment of the people who strongly desired for peace and to show to the world that it has put sincere efforts on its electoral promise of bringing the naxalites to the negotiating table.

The blame game and the subsequent spurt in violence, which include retaliatory actions by both naxalites and the police that followed after the collapse of the peace initiative, are only the re-enactment of what had happened during the nearly 10-year rule of the Telugu Desam government led by Chandrababu Naidu.

Naidu, who used force against Leftwing extremism in the state to the maximum possible level, termed weapons as the sole obstacle for any possible dialogue with the naxalites.

"Talks with the naxalites are possible only if they lay down the arms," was his consistent reply and a propaganda tool to neutralise the efforts of organisations such as Committee of Concerned Citizens (CCC), which asked both the parties to shun violence.

Naidu even went to the extent of making naxal violence as the single most reason to go for early polls in the state after an attempt on his life by the Maoists in the later part of 2003 failed.

The present government, however, did not agree with the stand taken by the previous regime as laying down the arms just to facilitate a dialogue with the government is unthinkable on the part of Maoists.

At one point, the government even dropped a very significant precondition "� asking the naxalites to desist from carrying weapons into human habitations during the time of peace talks.

This was of course stoutly rejected by the Maoists. Even human rights activists found Maoists' objection to the above precondition as outrageous saying that it did not amount to asking them to lay down the arms.

From that stage, the state government has now reached a stage where there appears to be no difference between the approaches adopted by the previous Telugu Desam government and the present Congress government on the naxal issue.

According to the insiders in the government, the rethink in the political establishment on peace talks started when the first round of talks held between both the parties in Hyderabad proved to be a great PR coup by the Maoists.

The Maoist leaders emerged as heroes in folklore and received more than 400 representations during their stay in Hyderabad on several issues ranging from personal injustices to trade union problems.

The government officials, who played a behind-the-curtains role during the time tacitly admitted that Maoists got an upperhand in the final analysis of the overall outcome of the first round of talks.

Sensing that the risk of playing into the hands of Maoists was even greater during the second round of talks with the naxalites listing issues like separate statehood for Telangana on their agenda, the government began hardening its stand on the weapons issue.

Initially, the government said that the issue of weapons would be discussed in the second round of talks. But with the scope for continuance of the dialogue process becoming impossible, the government now says that the talks are possible only if the naxals lay down arms.

Taking for granted the newfound liberalism of the Congress government, Maoists started forcefully occupying land in districts as soon as the first round of talks got over.

This further worsened the prospects for resumption of the dialogue. These developments have made the police to take the situation again under their control.

Except for some brief periods of bloody conflicts between the underground naxal outfits in the state and the Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties in some parts of the state, leaders of all the political organisations including the ruling parties remained passive at field level.

This was even when they faced the extreme threat of receiving fatwas from Maoists who asked them to resign from their respective parties. This ensured a situation where the police emerged as the only force and self-proclaimed saviours to protect the society from naxalite violence, which made the common people suffer further.

In this backdrop, observers feel that the remarks by the Prime Minister and the Andhra Pradesh chief minister during the recent meeting of chief ministers on internal security held at Delhi on the issue of naxal violence show that both the central and state governments fell into the same groove "�promoting political inaction in the name of security threat.