Modi backs dialogue with Maoists

While backing his partys line for firm action against Maoists,Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday indicated that the doors for talks should be kept open.

While backing his partys line for firm action against Maoists,Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday indicated that the doors for talks should be kept open. The party,however,stuck to its position that dialogue was not possible while violence continues and stressed that restoration of peace and reclaiming the territory was of utmost importance.

Modis Chhattisgarh counterpart Raman Singh also did not reject the idea of talks,but said one cant sit in a dialogue by holding guns in his hand.

Modis comments came at an interaction with students of the Mangalayatan University,Aligarh. He said the youth should give up arms and look for solutions through dialogue. While news agency reports quoted Modi as saying that these youths are our own and we have to make them understand that talks are the only way and killing people is not going to solve any problem,a spokesperson of the Gujarat Government said Modis statement was that the youth should give up the path of violence and look for solutions to their issues through dialogue within the constitutional framework.

Clarifying his remarks here,Modi said,My answer to a question was that I will request the youth that violence will never change the situation. They should leave arms and within the constitutional framework they should raise their voices in the right forums to solve their problems.

Though the BJP argued that there was no contradiction in Modis views and the partys official line,his dubbing Naxalites as our own flies in the face of the party that has equated them with terrorists and demanded strong action against them. Singh,who had on Wednesday labelled Maoists as terrorists,reiterated that the ultimate aim of the Naxals is to capture Delhi through power of the gun.

In New Delhi,Modi said the government should take strong action against Naxals as killing of innocents cannot be allowed and that any tendency to destroy the society with arms cannot be accepted. It is learnt that senior party leaders contacted him after his comments hit the headlines.

Meanwhile,Singh met Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and discussed the situation. Singh said he and Chidambaram were on the same page on tackling Maoists. No politics should be involved with this issue and we all should rise above party lines to combat them, he said.

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On dialogue with Maoists,he said,We have announced a better surrender policy. We have said that if there is any initiative for talks,Chhattisgarh would not shy away from it. But the key issue is that if you are inviting someone for talks,he has to have faith in democracy. One cant sit in a dialogue by holding guns in his hand.