New Delhi, July 15: BJP today accused Home Minister P Chidambaram of “not understanding the depth of Naxal problem” after he indicated in the Rajya Sabha that the Centre was not in favour of Salwa Judum, a movement against Maoists, to counter the menace.
“Home Minister today said that there was no review of the Naxal issue. He (Chidambaram) does not understand the depth of the problem,” senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters outside Parliament.
Naidu said a meeting of all states was called during NDA rule and the issue was taken up seriously then, ruing that the Home Minister “ridiculed it” today.
“The present government does not understand the depth and seriousness of the problem. Naxals have spread in 135 districts of the country. It’s no more a state-specific problem and there should be a national level coordinated approach to tackle it,” Naidu said.
Disapproving of Chidambaram’s stand on Salwa Judum, Naidu said, “The movement Salwa Judum was led by the leader of the Opposition in the Chattisgarh Assembly Mahendra Karma who is from Congress. Salwa Judum people are fighting the Naxal problem ideologically.”
Earlier today, Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha, “We are not in favour of non-state players taking on extremists.
We are for the states for dealing with Left-wing extremists,” when D Raja (CPI) asked him about the Salwa Judum movement in Chattisgarh to deal with Naxalites.
—Agencies