Banerjee issued an ultimatum to them asking the Naxals to choose between talks and killing.
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she is being ‘targeted’ by Maoists, she issued an ultimatum to them asking the Naxals to choose between talks and killing, saying “the two can't go together”.
“Newly-armed Maoists and their agents, who want to derail economic development and peace in affected regions, have been moving around my residence targeting me, but I will take people with me to defeat their plans. I am not afraid of them. If they are thinking so, then they are wrong,” she told a local TV channel on Sunday.
Party insiders said what apparently shocked the chief minister was the recent shift in stand by Union home minister P Chidambarm.
During his visit to the city, he had appealed the Maoists to come for talks without any preconditions: “You do not have to lay down arms, nor we are asking you to give up your ideology, only come and start a dialogue,” he had said.
On Monday, addressing a mammoth rally in Singur, she said, “We cannot offer them olive branch while they kill us. And who kill innocent people cannot claim that they are entitled to talk about human rights violations.”
“If the fight was for ideology, I would have bowed 10 times and salute. But if the fight is for loot and killings and kidnappings and extortion and torture, it cannot be tolerated,” she thundered.
The Singur Divas rally was held to mark the launching of Singur movement by her party in 2006.
“Maoists and CPI(M) have joined hands to obliterate Trinamool Congress activists and other party leaders,” she said adding, “they got CPI(M) arms to implement their plan of action for killing.”
In last one month, the Maoists have killed over three Trinamool Congress activists and a few others belonging to local parties.
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