Swami Agnivesh, who was mediating the peace talks between the government and the Maoists, claimed that the Maoists were on the verge of declaring a date for a 72-hour ceasefire as the government had demanded, just before the death of the CPI(Maoist) country spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias Azad. During his visit to
Kolkata on Wednesday, he also mentioned that he would meet Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday and personally ask him to start a judicial enquiry into the “mysterious death” of Azad.
“Azad was very actively involved in initiating the peace process between the state and the Maoists. I was expecting something very positive last week: a precise date on which the Maoists had decided to start the ceasefire of 72 hours as demanded by the state,” said Swami Agnivesh.
He further informed that he was approached by the Union government to act as a mediator on May 10. The conditions laid by the government were to abjure violence for 72 hours. After communicating the message to the CPI(Maoist) central committee, it was on May 31 that Swamiji received a letter from Azad expressing willingness for talks. Though there was no mention about the “72-hour ceasefire” in the first letter from the Maoists, the second letter that Swamiji received from Azad on June 26 confirmed the same.
Finally, Swamiji had written to Azad asking for a specific date for the ceasefire. “I had proposed three dates: July 10, 15 and 20.