West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has made it clear that the peace process that her government has initiated with the Maoists will be discontinued and joint operations intensified against them, unless the rebels shun violence.
She has asked the interlocutors to convey this message to them. The chief minister on Thursday held a marathon meeting with the six members of the civil society who were appointed by her for initiating talks with the Maoists. “Some incidents in the recent past were discussed in the meeting. We will have to bring into notice those incidents to the main stakeholders (read: the Maoists),” Sujato Bhadra, one of the interlocutors said after the meeting. Earlier on Monday, the chief minister had announced that the politics of murder and mayhem of the Maoists will not be tolerated. “You (the Maoists) think that you will continue to kill and hold talks simultaneously. Negotiations and murders cannot go together,” the chief minister had said.
Meanwhile, the CPI(Maoist) has once again made it clear that unless the joint forces are withdrawn from Jangalmahal, they will not come for any talks. “You are talking about peace process, but the joint forces have intensified their operations since August,” said a rebel, Akash.