No political trade-off with terror: PM

The challenge from Left extremism became the focal point of the chief ministers" conference on law and order, here today.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged a national concern when he said the government was willing to have an honest and meaningful dialogue with any group that shunned violence, but would come down heavily on insurgency.

He said levels of extremism were actually going down in the Northeast including Manipur and Assam. Indicating the government"s perspective, he said, "Destiny beckons the Northeast to become an active bridge between south Asia and east Asia at a time when this century is to be the Asian century".

But the Prime Minister gave no hint of how the government would handle the embarrassment caused by the rejection of talks by Naxal groups in Andhra Pradesh by which the government had set such store.

Governor Buta Singh, who represented Bihar, and Uttaranchal Chief Minister ND Tiwari were among participants who called for central help to deal with the problems of rising Maoism from across the border and the threat it represented to Bihar, Uttaranchal and West Bengal.

The Prime Minister said there could be "no political compromise with terror".

He dwelt on cross-border infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgency in the Northeast and the threat posed by Naxalism in some other parts. Observing that internal security "is our biggest national security challenge," he asked the chief ministers to function on a war footing and pay the highest attention in dealing with this.

Singh said notwithstanding the attempts to disturb the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service by terrorists, the people of J&K had come onto the streets as one to welcome this gesture of reconciliation.

Singh hoped the terrorists and extremists in the region "have grasped the mood of the people and will not try to disrupt the bus service again. I believe it is the joint responsibility of governments of India and Pakistan, and of the local authorities on both sides of the Line of Control, to work together in providing full security cover to the bus service."

The Prime Minister said he believed that those at the helm of affairs should take "critical decisions" to create a congenial atmosphere and work together to reshape the destiny and international environment for India"s development that has never been as favourable as it is now.

Emphasising that the limits of human rights and dignity should not be transgressed while dealing with those who have strayed away from the mainstream, he said the need for a focused, compact, multi-disciplinary group to handle such a complex issue cannot be over-emphasised.

On police reforms, he asked the chief ministers to give the recommendations of existing committees utmost importance and initiate the required reform, in training, service conditions, career progression, technical support and "depoliticising" the functioning of the police. "We need to have zero-tolerance for criminalisation of politics," he said.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the overall internal security and law and order situation in the last one year had shown a definite improvement. Infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir had come down by 61 per cent mainly due to fencing of the border and heightened surveillance and strong counter action by security forces, he said.

Patil said a record flow of tourists to the Valley, participation of around 400,000 pilgrims in Amarnath Yatra last year and a huge voter turnout in recent elections at different levels have been possible as a result of improved security situation in the state.

"Despite terrorist attacks and threats, the journey of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus has begun. This also shows that people in the state are against militancy and militants are getting increasingly isolated", he said. Similarly, the overall terrorist violence in north east declined by about 19 per cent last year, he said.

Though overall Naxal violence remained more or less at the same level this year as in last year, he said there was a need to explore mechanisms to pursue a co-ordinated and common approach to curb Naxal violence and influence.