Congress’ Secret Talks

While our government was waging war on the Maoists, the Congress secretly approached them for peace talks.

A top Maoist ideologue has revealed that Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh had tried opening up a secret backdoor channel with the CPI (Maoist).

Speaking to weekly current affairs and features magazine Open, senior Maoist ideologue Tusharkant Bhattacharya has said that he was approached by Digvijaya Singh in August 2009 through a Hyderabad-based Congress leader. Bhattacharya, who is one of the most senior and respected ideologues among Maoists was in Warangal jail then, facing trial in the historic 1976 Tappalpur raid case, in which Bhattacharya’s co-accused were the late Kondapalli Seetaramaiah, the founder of the People’s War Group, and Mupalla Laxman Rao alias Ganapathi, currently the supreme commander of the CPI (Maoist).

Bhattacharya says that, on behalf of his party, he had told the intermediary that they would not speak to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Home Minister P. Chidambaram whom they consider mere ‘bureaucrats’ but were willing to speak to ‘mass leaders’ like Digvijaya Singh.

He has revealed that a meeting between Digvijaya Singh and him was scheduled at a prominent hospital in Hyderabad, but before it could take place, Andhra Chief Minister YSR Reddy died in a helicopter crash and the meeting got shelved.

Meanwhile Bhattacharya was released from the jail in November 2009. He says Digvijaya Singh then sent him his personal contact details including his mobile number and e-mail ID. But, in January this year, Bhattacharya was arrested again and his mobile phone seized. When contacted, Digvijaya Singh denied any such contact but circumstantial details lend credence to the fact that such an approach was made.

“Did the Prime Minister or the Congress Party High Command know about this approach that was made to the Maoists?” said Sandipan Deb, Editor-in-Chief, Open. “If the answer is no, then the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. If the answer is yes, then clearly, the country’s strategy to deal with Maoists insurgency is confused.”

The report appears in the issue of Open dated 7 May, on stands now.

Open, the weekly current affairs and features magazine, recently celebrated its first anniversary. Last year, the magazine had carried the first-ever media interview of Maoist Commander-in-Chief Ganapathi (“We Shall Certainly Defeat the Government”).

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