'Evolve comprehensive policy to tackle naxals'

Chennai, July 18: Condemning the brutal killing of tribals by Maoists in Chhattisgarh, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu today urged the Centre to evolve a comprehensive national policy to tackle the naxal menace.

Addressing a press conference here, he charged the Congress-led UPA Government with failing to understand the gravity of the situation and lacking the political will to handle the problem.

He said the country was facing a grave security threat from Maoists, who were following a ''bankrupt ideology'' that could not be accepted in a democracy.

Stating that the People's War Group and MCC had merged and formed Communist Party of India-Maoist with an objective to capture political power, Mr Naidu said what had happended in Nepal should be an eye-opener to the UPA Government.

Mr Naidu said despite the fact that the Maoists in Nepal share weapons with their counterparts in India, it was unfortunate that the Centre had ''legitimised'' Maoists by sending CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury to Nepal to hold talks with them during the recent unrest in that country.

He also said the Naxalites were attempting to form a red corridor from Nepal to Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu via Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

He stressed that there should be joint efforts by the Centre and states to curb extremism.

Mr Naidu also called for the revival of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) as ordinary criminal procedure code could not effectively deal with terrorism. If the Centre was averse to the name POTA, they could rechristen the Act with any other name, he suggested and said unfortunately, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was carried away by 'vote bank politics' and was under the compulsion of retaining alliance parties.

''The Prime Minister should not stand on false prestige on POTA and should come out with a stringent law to deal with the security threats,'' he added.

Mr Naidu said the BJP would launch a novel ''ringing of bells' agitation when Parliament begins on July 24 to wake up the government from its slumber.

On reports that BJP senior leader L K Advani was attempting to''upstage'' party President Rajnath Singh, he said there was no question of upstaging anybody and all party leaders take the guidance and advice of Mr Advani as he was a 'fatherly figure.''

UNI