Naxalism to be over in 5 yrs: Rajnath
Home minister says leftwing extremism has been on a decline for three and a half years and will be over by 2022
Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday claimed that Naxalism in the country and insurgency in the north-east would be over by 2022.
Speaking at Hindi daily Hindustan’s Shikhar Samagam conclave here, the minister said that all possible efforts were being made to solve the Kashmir issue as well.
“There has been a decline in Naxalism in the country by roughly 55% and in insurgency in the north-east by 75% in the last three and a half years,” he said, adding that the government had been able to achieve this largely with the cooperation of local people.
Reacting to the criticism faced by the Centre over the hardships caused to people by demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said that when hard decisions were taken, they might cause some difficulties to people initially but the end result was generally pleasant.
“There are examples in the world that show short-term pain results in long-term gain,” he pointed out.
The senior BJP leader claimed demonetisation had achieved its objective to a large extent as far as curbing fake currency and terror funding in Kashmir were concerned.
He said the situation in Kashmir had significantly improved since the Modi government came to power at the Centre and added that the government wanted to solve the Kashmir issue by instilling a sense of confidence and not fear among the people of the strife-torn Valley.
Replying to a question during the interaction session, he said that Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had assured the Centre that the state government would take appropriate steps for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.
On the contentious issue of gau rakshaks, he said that nobody would be allowed to take law into their hand. “When complaints were received about gau rakshaks, we issued an advisory to all chief ministers to take stern action against anyone who took law in his hand in the name of cow protection,” Singh said.
The Union minister reiterated that radicalisation of Muslims was insignificant in India as compared to most Muslim-dominant countries. “And its credit goes to the followers of Islam in India,” he added. He denied there being any increased threat to the country from the terror group Islamic State (IS).
Asked to comment on the continuing smog in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), the home minister said pollution was a global crisis and the government had taken it as a challenge and would do everything to tackle the problem.