Politics trumped the crucial meeting between Union home minister P Chidambaram and the chief ministers of four Maoist-affected states with the CMs of Bihar and Jharkhand skipping the event in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was conspicuous by his absence, deputing just the state’s chief secretary, Amir Subhani, and director general of police Anand Shankar. His Jharkhand counterpart, Shibu Soren, who was admitted to hospital on Tuesday morning, sent the state’s deputy CMs Raghuvar Das and Sudesh Mahato.
Only Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik flew in for the meet hosted by West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
At a press meet later, Chidambaram attempted to play down the absence of the two CMs. “Kumar had informed me in advance that he would not attend because of another unavoidable appointment. Either I will visit him in Patna or he will visit me in New Delhi. As regards Soren, he was admitted to hospital and hence, could not attend the meeting,” he said.
The Union home minister also appeared embarrassed when asked about Bhattacharjee’s claims that the Maoists in Bengal were being supported by railway minister Mamata Banerjee, whose party is an ally of the central government. “You better ask this question to the West Bengal CM. As far as my knowledge goes, nobody is colluding with Maoists. Any political party in India that believes in parliamentary democracy cannot collude with Maoists,” he said while Bhattacharjee was seated next to him.
Incidentally, political pundits say Kumar and Soren stayed away due to their political compulsions. Soren came to power recently with the backing of Maoist supporters, while Kumar is keen to keep Banerjee happy by not being seen alongside her bete noire Bhattacharjee.
The railway minister’s tirade against her predecessor, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and her claims that he juggled figures to show the railways as a profitable operation, has the potential to help Kumar in his electoral battle with Yadav for the Bihar assembly elections later this year.
The Centre has envisaged a two-pronged strategy against the insurgents. The first stage involves intra-state operations in Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand, which have already started. The second is an inter-state operation to be overseen by the Centre. But Chidamabram added that the operations should not be misconstrued as an all-out offensive to kill the insurgents.
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