-The Hindu   Stating that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's stand on the maoist situation in the State reeked of “opportunism, duplicity, indecisiveness and vagueness,” Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Surya Kanta Mishra said here on Saturday that in the last four months she had done irreparable damage to the situation. Addressing a public rally at Jhargram during the day, Ms. Banerjee said that she had fulfilled her promise of...

-The Hindu   Making no reference to the month-long conditional “ceasefire offer” from the West Bengal leadership of the Communist Party of India (maoist), Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday gave a seven-day deadline to the Left Wing Extremists in the Jangalmahal region on her offer of “negotiations if you give up your arms.” During her second visit to the maoist-affected Jangalmahal region after assuming charge as Chief Minister, Ms. Banerjee claimed that...

In the past, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had maintained “there are no maoists in West Bengal” and that the situation in Jangalmahal region in the State was the result of “infighting among the Marxists,” but the Chief Minister on Saturday lashed out at the rebels, without naming them outright, labelling them “supari killers,” “jungle mafia” and “cowardly goons hiding in the forests.” A little over a year ago, at a...

Why were two tribals and the Essar group framed by the Chhattisgarh police? Why are Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi being systematically silenced? This chilling story of one family reveals more about India's Naxal crisis than any official document can. AS I sit to write this, at 12.20 pm on 4 October 2011, an SMS pops up on my phone: “Soni Sori has been arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch.” The...

The media imagery of a “liberated” Red corridor extending from Andhra Pradesh, cutting across the heart of India, all the way to Nepal is the most vivid representation of the threat that maoists pose to our country. The Prime Minister describes the maoists as India's most serious internal security challenge and the Home Minister rates it as a “problem graver than terrorism.” In search of an effective response, official committees have,...