Naxals are our brothers and we will look at their problems: Shinde Minister believes MHA would find a way out with its new approach

Naxals are our brothers and we will look at their problems: Shinde

Minister believes MHA would find a way out with its new approach

In an interview with Zee News and DNA’s Manan Kumar, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde hints at a change in strategy to tackle Maoist threat You were promoted when the power grid failed? Isn’t this a little unfair? Responsibility of the grid failure lies with the states. They should not draw more power than their quota. This had happened last year too and we had fined them and cut their quota. During my tenure as a power minister, the power situation in the country has, in fact, improved tremendously. As far as making me home minister is concerned, the files had started moving three days before the grid failed and the whole process of reshuffle had started when the party decided to field Pranab Mukherjee for the President’s post. Sharad Pawar brought you into politics. But he now does not want you to be the leader of the Lok Sabha. He was also opposed to you becoming the Union home minister. I do not think it is correct. I think the person who introduces another person to something feels happy to see him rise. I do not think that Mr Pawar has a small heart and thinks on these lines. How would you deal with Naxalism, especially at a time when there are allegations of killing tribals in a fake encounter? Look, how to deal with Naxalism is a very tough question. It is not a new development. It started during 1962-65 when Charu Majumdar and Sanyal were the leaders and has now reached this stage. It has several reasons: poverty, no development, no road network, no food security. We need to look at this in detail. Our prime minister is keen to improve these shortfalls. He has taken a very important decision of relief and rehabilitation. Then there are questions of social life of the tribals, their land rights. We need to look at them holistically. So will you have a soft approach towards them? Our approach is that they are also our brothers. And we would to look at their problems. We need to analyse the reasons for the spread of this movement. I have seen it closely in Gadchiroli when I was chief minister in Maharashtra. There is no benefit in hiding facts. I think we would find a way out with our new approach. Another difficult task before you relates to the National Counter Terrorism Centre. Will you keep it on hold till you get all states on board? Chidambaram (former Union home minister) has done work on it and when there were some problems he tried to reinvent it. But it is correct that we live in a federal state. Moreover, there are governments of different parties in different states. But those who are running different state governments are also our brothers. We should all get together to keep this country safe.