Written by: Express News Service
3 min readNew DelhiFeb 17, 2010 03:21 AM IST
First published on: Feb 17, 2010 at 03:21 AM IST
Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the Maoist killing of 24 policemen at a camp in West Bengal has delivered a rude shock to government efforts to initiate dialogue with the extremists.
Home Minister P Chidambaram has said over and over again in the past one month that he is ready for negotiations provided they eschew violence,but the answer we got was yesterday in West Bengal, UPA governments top law officer said on Tuesday before a Division Bench of Justices Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar. The remarks from the AG came after a submission by civil rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan,highlighting the plight of tribals of Chhattisgarh,trapped in spurts of fierce fighting between security forces and the Naxals.
We do not want to perpetuate a siege or a civil war in the country. But so far no avenues have been opened by them for talks, the AG apprised the court. To this,the court responded with alacrity,saying,We are not at war. We are all citizens here.
Appearing for the Chhattisgarh government,Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium agreed with Vahanvati when he submitted that the state cannot afford to take a rigid position with the Naxals as lives of tribals were at stake. The government is not toeing any political line in this issue. This is plainly a human situation, the SG submitted in court.
Some of the reports that we have read are deeply disturbing. About two lakh people have been displaced from their natural habitats… Where will they go? Who will give them employment? the bench conveyed its anxiety for tribals.
The court pointed out that though the government has done much in the way of law enforcement in the Naxal-hit regions,not a word is heard on developmental work
undertaken in the areas.
The SG acceded that the government does understand that merely putting people in a camp and then calling it a refugee camp is not enough. These people have fundamental rights. I assure the court that if there are ways to improve the situation,we will take all the steps, he said.
Meanwhile,the statements of the six tribals allegedly witnesses to the killing of nine persons in an encounter at Goompad Village in Dhantewada district on October 1,2009 were produced before the apex court. They had given their statements to Delhi District Judge G P Mittal as per the direction of the Supreme Court.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves,who appeared on the behalf of activist Himanshu Kumar,summed up the content of the tribals statements to the district judge: They have broadly confirmed there was a massacre. But did not know who did it.
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