Controversial ex-Bastar IG S R P Kalluri today said he was ready to take intellectuals from Delhi to Bastar and vice versa to curb the spread of "misleading" information about Bastar.
"Some intellectuals in Delhi are spreading wrong perception about Bastar. We will take them to Bastar to show them the reality," he told PTI.
Similarly, he said he was going to bring some people from Bastar to the national capital to "bridge the gap."
"Raipur is also included in the plan," he said.
Kalluri, who has been accused of targeting human rights activists, lawyers and journalists after he took charge as the Bastar IG in June 2014, was speaking at a seminar on 'National Journalism in the Current Perspective: Media and Myth' at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) here.
The ex-Bastar IG said naxalism had lost its relevance and its followers were reduced to mere "extortionists".
"It is an international conspiracy to create internal security problems and tarnish the image of the country," he said.
Adivasis were always self-contented but naxalites from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal infiltrate Bastar, making the tribals their victims, he said.
"Because of geographical accident, Bastar is located near naxal-hit places, otherwise people of the place are happy and derive much happiness from limited resources," he said.
Since the year 2000, over 2,000 adivasis have been killed by naxalites, he alleged.
Kalluri went on to assert that not more than five persons out of the 40 lakh population in Bastar would hate him.
"People who are creating this perception (of him being controversial) are very vocal and are deliberately manipulating facts," he said.
"I am a normal human being and a small man, but people have created a wrong perception about me," he added.
Meanwhile, students of IIMC and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) staged protests against Kalluri's visit to the campus here.
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