Naxal-hit states advised to tighten security

Amidst the blame game initiated by the Congress that adequate security was not provided to the Chhattisgarh Congress leaders resulting in their tragic killings by Naxals, Union Home Ministry on Monday issued an advisory to all the nine State Chief Secretaries in the Maoist-hit States asking them to step up security for all political leaders. It should be reviewed thoroughly and if necessary their protection should be upgraded. Jolted by Naxals targeting Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh, the Home Ministry advisory asked all left-wing extremism-hit States to revamp security of political workers and appoint nodal officers to coordinate political programmes so that such deadly attacks do not occur in future. After the dastardly Naxal attack, the UPA government at the Centre does not want to take any chances elsewhere in the run-up to the State Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh. The Congress is keen to drive home the point that it was due to the failure of the Raman Singh-led BJP Government, which is solely responsible for the massacre.

The advisory was sent out to all the nine Naxal-hit States of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. While elections are due now in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra go to polls in 2014. Jharkhand polls could also be scheduled now. According to highly-placed sources, during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi to Raipur, Rahul Gandhi lost his cool and wanted to know as to who should take the blame for this horrendous attack. Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Sunil Kumar, who was peeved at this, offered to put in his papers, if that would satisfy anyone. The BJP, on the other hand, lashed out at the Congress for indulging in politics over dead bodies. Union Minister of State for Home R P N Singh had stated, "There have been some security lapses, otherwise such a major incident would not have taken place. We have asked the NIA to investigate the whole case. If there have been any lapses from the Central forces or the State governments, the buck will have to stop somewhere. Punishment will be meted out to anyone, who has led to such kind of tragic incident in Chhattisgarh." BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi felt that the Congress leaders should not have indulged in blame game in the hour of grief. The BJP leader felt that in an hour of grief, political leaders should come together and evolve a consensus on how to tackle such incidents of violence, rather than blame each other. Anita Saluja