Hindustan Times (Jammu)

Modi govt will eliminate Maoists in a very short period of time, says Shah

- Letters@hindustant­imes.com

The Narendra Modi government will eliminate Naxals from the country in a very short period of time, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted on Wednesday.The central government has been conducting incessant operations against terrorism and Naxals, he said in a statement, a day after security forces gunned down 29 Maoists in Chhattisga­rh.

“I can say with conviction that operations against Naxals will continue in the times to come, and under the leadership of Modi, we will uproot Naxalism from our nation in a very short period of time,” Shah said.

The home minister said since the formation of a BJP government in Chhattisga­rh three months ago, more than 80 Naxals have been eliminated, more than 125 arrested and more than 150 have surrendere­d.

Shah said a large number of camps of security forces have been set up in Maoist-affected areas since 2014. Since 2019, as many as 250 such camps have been set up, ending the security vacuum, he said. In the biggest ever encounter in Chhattisga­rh, security personnel on Tuesday gunned down 29 Naxalites, including some senior members, in Kanker district.

This was the highest fatalities suffered by Maoists in a single encounter in the history of the state’s fight against Left Wing Extremism.

I respect her as an individual and the work that she has done in Bollywood, but I doubt that she has done anything for the state of Himachal Pradesh. She has been continuous­ly claiming that she belongs to Mandi and Manali but during the time that disaster struck Himachal (last year’s floods), there was no help forthcomin­g from her. She is a famous Bollywood personalit­y but I would like to ask how many people has she given an opportunit­y in her production companies. There are other successful women in the state who have done a lot of work in the judiciary, in the civil services, and other fields; and she’s one of them, but nothing more. The Himachal ki Beti narrative is a farce to get emotional votes from the people, and it’s not going to cut much ice.

I won’t be mentioning her name at all. For me, we are fighting against the might of the BJP government and organisati­on. The kind of discrimina­tion the central government did with Himachal Pradesh during the entire turbulent period that we had in the state

It has an emotional connect with our family and has been a Congress bastion for decades. It was represente­d by my father (Virbhadra Singh) for three terms, and after that my mother has also represente­d it three times now. Pandit Sukhram ji, who was the telecom minister, has also represente­d the area. So yes, we have a good connect with the area and it is my privilege that the party has given me the ticket even though I didn’t apply for it. I am a sitting cabinet minister and I wanted to serve the people in a different capacity but now that the party has asked me to, I have never shied away from any responsibi­lity and we will fight it out.

Firstly, I want to clarify that

Definitely, the vindictive­ness of the BJP government is for everyone to see. That was the beginning when we faced this way back in 2014. People at that time didn’t imagine that this could happen to a sitting chief minister. Now, it has become a very common thing where two sitting chief ministers are sitting in jail. It’s not a big deal now, but yes, this kind of things happen in politics and the kind of witchhunt that has been unleashed by the current political dispensati­on astonishes everybody.

We don’t have it in Himachal Pradesh, but yes, the fact that this has been happening nationally is something that the Congress leadership should think about. Why is this exodus happening on such a large scale? We can blame the BJP for what they’re doing, their use of agencies and excesses. At the same time, we need to take some corrective measures in our party also because always blaming the other side, isn’t the right way. We have to do a lot of introspect­ion and in the long term, build our organisati­on, and see that leaders who are committed to the ideology are promoted.

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