Speak less please, Nitish tells Chidambaram

NEW DELHI - Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Saturday had some advise for Home Minister P. Chidambaram: don’t speak too much about the government’s strategy against Maoists.

“I respect him (Chidambaram). But I have an advice that speaking too much is not necessary,” Nitish Kumar told the media at the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC).

Speaking too much reduces the impact of words, he said. “One should speak only as much as is required by the work at hand.”

Chidambaram had courted controversy during his visit to West Bengal last week when he remarked that the “buck should stop at the chief minister’s table” on curbing inter-party clashes.

The remark sparked an angry riposte from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Nitish Kumar said there was no need for Chidambaram to resign over the slaughter of 76 security personnel in Chhattisgarh. “Everybody knows that the prime minister will not accept it (the resignation).”

Answering queries about the Bihar government’s approach to Maoists, he said: “The problem cannot be tackled only through operations.”

He said the need of the hour was “development with justice” at the grassroots so that the benefit reaches the common man. “The delivery system has to be improved by ridding it of corruption,” he said.

The chief minister said he was not against anti-Maoist operations, which he underlined can be carried out according to the demand of the situation.

“But fruits of development should reach the people. If they (Maoists) are removed from an area, they can set up base at another place,” he said.

He lashed out at Home Secretary G.K. Pillai for his remarks last month that the Bihar government was soft in taking action against Maoists since assembly elections were due in the state later this year.

“It is not the job of the home secretary to make political statements. It is not in good taste… What has happened to the home ministry?” he said, adding that the remarks had been made without understanding the issue and reflected immaturity.

“We have to respect each other and cooperate,” Nitish Kumar said.

About his non-participation in a meeting of four chief ministers of Maoist-affected states called by Chidambaram in Kolkata in February, he said was preoccupied then.

At the same time, “I have been expressing my views (on ways to tackle Maoists) to the prime minister,” he said.