Shouldn’t have killed PCC chief,son: Maoists

In a statement issued on October 10,Ramanna,secretary of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of the CPI (Maoist),said some “gambhir galtiyaan (serious mistakes)” were made in the attack.

The statement,issued in the form of a questionnaire,clarified the Maoist position on the killing of innocent people and said “we have already expressed regret for it”. It did not apologise for the Darbha attack.

The seven-page questionnaire,which was released to reporters on Tuesday night,contains three questions that outline the Maoists’ analysis of the attack.

In a shift away from their statement issued days after the attack,in which they were silent on Dinesh Patel’s killing,the Maoists have now said that killing the PCC chief’s son was “not correct”. It was,Ramanna’s statement says,“a big mistake,as he (Dinesh) did not have any anti-people record”.

“Our PLGA command that led this attack took this decision in haste.”

Ramanna said that though Nand Kumar Patel,as home minister in the Congress government 10 years ago,had suppressed the Maoist movement,he had not acted against the Maoists since,and “we should not have killed him”.

Nand Kumar Patel,the statement said,had raised his voice against the “Sarkeguda and Ehadsameta massacres,and the decision to kill him was not appropriate”.

In their initial statement,the Maoists had justified killing the PCC chief.

It is not new or unusual for the Maoists to issue a statement clarifying their position. Not all clarifications,however,amount to apologies.

In November 2009,then CPI (Maoist) spokesperson Azad had expressed “regret” at the beheading of Jharkhand police officer

Francis Induvar. “We share the grief of Sunita Induvar (Francis’s wife) and her children,” he had said,adding,however,that “when our guerrillas capture a cruel police officer,especially one who has been responsible for the murder of several of our comrades,there is bound to be serious reaction… We will educate our cadre so that such beheadings do not occur in future.”

Also in November 2009,the Maoists termed the derailing of a train in Jharkhand,which led to two people dying,as a “mistake” committed by “overzealous new recruits”.

Neither of these statements — like the one issued on October 10 — amounted to an apology.

In contrast,a statement issued in April 2009 — after a landmine intended for policemen killed several villagers in Bastar — had said: “We know that by our saying sorry your dear departed will not return,nor will our apology dry your tears… We are neither extremists nor terrorists… We are children of workers,peasants and middle classes.”

The latest statement from Ramanna also mentions the murder of journalist Nemichand Jain in February in Sukma,and speaks of it in a tone markedly different from the one it adopts for the Darbha victims.

The statement has expressed “deep sympathy for Jain’s relatives and friends”,and said “the incident took place due to wrong estimation and a conservative decision by our lower committee”.

“We are deeply aggrieved by it.”

Ramanna’s statement included a comment on the “political bankruptcy” of the BJP and Congress who he said were accusing each other of colluding with Maoists only for political gains. Hours later,Leader of Opposition in the Chhattisgarh assembly Ravindra Chaubey said: “The timing of this statement is suspicious. It is intended to protect the BJP government and seems to have come from them.”

The BJP hit back soon afterward. Party spokesperson Srichand Sundarani said: “Yeh vaktavya Congress ke ishaaron par diya gaya hai (This statement has been issued at the Congress’s behest). Why did the Naxals give a clean chit to a Congress leader who was being targeted (for his role in the Darbha attack) by his own partymen? Congress has formed an electoral alliance with the Naxals.”