With the May 25 Maoist attack on the Congress cavalcade in Chhattisgarh gradually becoming an election issue, the local unit of the party boycotted an all-party meeting called by Chief Minister Raman Singh to discuss strategies to combat the red terror.
The Congress stand seemed a bit divergent from what the Union Government, through its Home Ministry, is trying to do.
Apparently, the aggressive Congress approach came after party vice-president Rahul Gandhi undertook a late night visit to Chhattisgarh in the aftermath of the Maoist attack, which left 27 dead.
According to sources, the party’s central leaders, including Rahul, had a problem in controlling the angry state unit workers from turning into a “lynch mob” when Raman Singh came for the slain Congress leader Nand Lal Patel’s cremation.
To assuage the state Congress’ feelings, the party later decided to uploaded Rahul Gandhi’s comment on facebook. Rahul’s comment, “Why was the Congress Parivartan Yatra not given adequate security cover?”, was uploaded on facebook to underline a sense of solidarity with the local unit and their bereaved families.
Almost the entire Congress leadership in the state have been wiped out in the attack. The state unit has been on an offensive alleging that the BJP Government had not provided adequate security for its leaders who were on a campaign trail for the coming Assembly polls.
“It was their duty to provide us security--did they not know about our programme? We had made our booking, sent letters to the district administration and police 10 days in advance. Those who were part of this carelessness should be punished. What is the point of doing the all-party meeting now, why was a security drill not done when it would have made a difference?” said Congress leader Ravindra Chouubey over phone.
At the all-party meeting, a CPI leader said that the Left parties and the NCP vigorously raised the issue of security lapse and took on the BJP government on its failure to protect fellow political workers engaged in election activity in an area infested by Left extremism.
Meanwhile, there are attempts from the part of the Union Government and the BJP Central leadership to build bridges so that mainstream political activity in the state can be revived.
BJP president Rajnath Singh said: “Naxalism is a serious challenge, we need to be united to fight it”. He added that the incident should not be turned into a political football.
However, the Congress state unit in no mood to retrieve the middle ground, forced the party’s headquarters to tow their line. The party spokesperson, Bhakta Charan Das, said: “If the state government can make comprehensive security plan for its own Vikas Yatra, why it could not do the same for the Parivartan Yatra of the Congress.”
He meekly accepted Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh’s view that the “Maoists are terrorists”. Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Sushil Shinde met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to brief her.
