Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

NEW DELHI: The Centre is pursuing an "arrest or kill" policy against Naxalites, a zero tolerance attitude towards the outlaws who have been identified as the biggest internal security threat.

Union home secretary R K Singh told a parliamentary committee that privately he tells the DG of CRPF that "we arrest or kill as many armed Naxalites as possible".

The claim, if unusually forthright, was aimed at convincing parliamentarians wanting to know how the government reacted to killing of armed forces, and shows that the repeated insistence that Naxal extremism has socio-economic roots has not deterred the Centre from pressing ahead with a tough policy.

Addressing the standing committee on home affairs on April 4, Singh said, "Within the close confines of this room, if I am discussing this with the DG of CRPF separately, my preference would be that we arrest or kill as many armed Naxalites as possible. I am not going to say this in the press. That does not mean we do not react."

The candid statement, perhaps the first of its kind, that cops have been asked not to flinch from killing Naxals, raised tempers during the discussion. Congress MP Harshvardhan objected to the statement, saying it was "unconstitutional" to direct CRPF personnel to "kill them".

The home secretary clarified, "I said arrest them, and, if not, you have the weapons, fire; I mean, kill them."

The Congress MP from Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh objected again.

The senior bureaucrat’s frank admission of a "strong policy" against Naxalites, spoken behind closed doors, comes in the thick of major hostage crises involving Red outlaws. The abduction of an MLA in Odisha and an IAS officer (collector) in Chhattisgarh have seen a single demand from Naxalites - stop Operation Greenhunt.

Social activists have complained that carte blanche to security forces in anti-Naxal operations were resulting in human rights violations, with poor tribals in jungles at the receiving end of cops’ anger against Red terror.

Harshvardhan offered no comments on the panel’s discussions, but when asked about the Naxal policy, he told TOI, "How does one know when a tribal is picked and killed, and then branded a Naxalite? There cannot be blanket orders to kill."

While Naxalites are engaged and killed in encounters, MPs felt the "arrest or kill" policy conveyed a general attitude towards the ultras and not just armed encounters. They pointed to the union home secretary’s caveat that he could not say this in public.

The comment has triggered debate among parliamentarians. They felt it was controversial and unacceptable, but conceded that the present mood was so strongly against Naxalites that the Centre could disregard concerns about human rights violations to go after them.