Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday, criticised Union home minister P. Chidambaram for taking a cowardly stand against the Naxals and demanded that they should be dealt with like enemies of the state.
Mr Thackeray compared the Naxals to terrorists, and said that the Congress government neither has the courage nor the willpower to give a befitting reply to the attacks launched by the Naxals and terrorists.
Mr Thackeray criticised Mr Chidambaram for his statement that “I don’t consider the Naxals as enemies, and I would never consider them enemies”. He advised the Union home minister to talk to the families of victims of the Naxal attacks.
“Those who deceive and attack our security forces, shoot our soldiers even after they are dead, have to be considered as enemies of the state. But our home minister takes a cowardly stand by saying that he is ready to hold talks with the Naxals, if they stop their violence for 72 hours. This kind of spineless stand increases the Naxal’s courage to launch further attacks,” Mr Thackeray said.
In an editorial in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Mr Thackeray said, “The Naxals have been carrying out frequent attacks in Dantewada. This has forced common people to wonder whether the Congress government has been appointed to count dead bodies. The country that has been dreaming of becoming super power is being attacked from all sides. First, foreign terrorists enter the country and kill over 200 people, and then the Naxals carry out landmine blasts and kill soldiers and innocent civilians. But there has never been a strong counter-attack by the government.”