Maoist truce offer is an eyewash, say experts

RAIPUR - Top Maoist leader Kishanji’s offer of a truce was nothing but an “eyewash”, security experts said here Wednesday, stressing that the government should not fall in the “talks trap”.

“Tuesday’s offer from Kishanji is nothing new, it’s a routine offer. I don’t think anybody is taking it seriously. Maoists have always adopted talks as a strategy to use the peace talk period to stretch their bases in new areas and launch fresh attacks. I hope the government will not get fooled,” said columnist Anil Vibhakar, an expert on Maoist issues.

On Tuesday, Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) politburo member Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji had said through an audio tape that his outfit was ready for talks with the government provided a three-month truce was declared.

“I keep saying that the CPI-Maoist is an outfit that believes in violence and propagates an ideology of usurping power at gunpoint. The three-month truce offer made by Kishanji is a complete eyewash,” said a Chhattisgarh-based anti-terrorism expert, involved for many years in giving capsule training to security men to fight “a guerrilla like a guerrilla”.

Though the state government has refused to comment on the Maoist leader’s truce offer, a senior official at the police headquarters here said: “It’s their (Maoists) old tactic to engage government in dialogue so that they can overcome losses suffered at the hands of security forces and then re-group themselves for a renewed war.”

The official said he was sure the central government would not fall into the “talks trap”.

New Delhi was quick to react to Kishanji’s proposal saying the Maoists must first abjure violence.

“It doesn’t really matter what Kishanji says. Nobody is interested in it (a ceasefire),” Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told IANS in New Delhi.

“He will say whatever he wants to. We have made our stand clear. They have to abjure violence before we start talking.”