Soren falls in PC line over Green Hunt
Vijay Deo Jha Ranchi 23 January, 2010
Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren sought to throw off the notion that he was opposed to the Operation Green Hunt in Jharkhand.
“I am not opposed to Centre’s plan of anti-Maoist offensive. I am not against Operation Green Hunt. The operation is being carried on in Jharkhand,” Soren said on Friday.
However, at the same time he recommended peace initiatives with Naxals. “I again ask Naxals to abjure killing of innocent people and come forward for dialogue. We want to know about their demands.”
The media also wanted to know from Soren as to why he was not invited in the meeting of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram with Chief Ministers of Naxal-hit States like Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, in Raipur on Friday. “It was a coordination meeting between three States and the involvement of Jharkhand was not required. Jharkhand has been called in another meeting scheduled to be held next month,” Soren claimed.
It was confirmed by Chidambaram on the sideline of the meeting in Raipur. “There is a new Government in Jharkhand. The Chief Minister and other senior officials are coming to Delhi on January 28 to meet me on the Naxalite issue,” Chidambaram informed the media.
Top mandarins, including DGP Neyaz Ahmed and Home Secretary JB Tubid, held a joint Press conference on Friday afternoon and took time to explain that the State Government was not dragging its feet behind in anti-Naxal operations. Though they refused to christen it as Operation Green Hunt, but claimed that the Government has been making all strategic arrangements and a joint operation could be launched.
But they refused to announce a date or a timeline to anti-Naxalite offensive, or even calling it one.
If that is true then Chidambaram’ got political endorsement for his anti-Naxal operation from Soren, who rather feared that any such mass offensive in Jharkhand under Centre’s supervision and monitoring might entail collateral damage to his core tribal constituency.
“I am not opposed to Centre’s plan of anti-Maoist offensive. I am not against Operation Green Hunt. The operation is being carried on in Jharkhand,” Soren said on Friday.
However, at the same time he recommended peace initiatives with Naxals. “I again ask Naxals to abjure killing of innocent people and come forward for dialogue. We want to know about their demands.”
The media also wanted to know from Soren as to why he was not invited in the meeting of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram with Chief Ministers of Naxal-hit States like Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, in Raipur on Friday. “It was a coordination meeting between three States and the involvement of Jharkhand was not required. Jharkhand has been called in another meeting scheduled to be held next month,” Soren claimed.
It was confirmed by Chidambaram on the sideline of the meeting in Raipur. “There is a new Government in Jharkhand. The Chief Minister and other senior officials are coming to Delhi on January 28 to meet me on the Naxalite issue,” Chidambaram informed the media.
Top mandarins, including DGP Neyaz Ahmed and Home Secretary JB Tubid, held a joint Press conference on Friday afternoon and took time to explain that the State Government was not dragging its feet behind in anti-Naxal operations. Though they refused to christen it as Operation Green Hunt, but claimed that the Government has been making all strategic arrangements and a joint operation could be launched.
But they refused to announce a date or a timeline to anti-Naxalite offensive, or even calling it one.
If that is true then Chidambaram’ got political endorsement for his anti-Naxal operation from Soren, who rather feared that any such mass offensive in Jharkhand under Centre’s supervision and monitoring might entail collateral damage to his core tribal constituency.
One of the senior officers of the Union Home Ministry who is coordinating anti-Naxalite operations informed that the Home Department (Jharkhand) has already been asked about the logistic support two months back through an official communiqué. “We are not in the position to disclose any thing. But we got the reply. If the operation gets off from its initial phase it will be free of any jurisdictional constraints and allow real-time cross-border monitoring,” he said.
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