Critics question Chidambaram’s tactics, Centre clueless

A clueless government was struggling to figure out how so many security personnel — 75 at last count on Tuesday — were caught in the Maoist-laid death trap at Sukma in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, even as home minister P Chidambaram came in for severe criticism from many quarters, including his own party.
Chidambaram admitted the government was “clueless” and was trying to figure out how the CRPF personnel “fell into the trap”. He said the attack showed the “savage nature of CPI(Maoist), their brutality and the savagery they are capable of”.

The home minister said the operation the jawans were going to carry out was jointly planned by the Chhattisgarh government and CRPF. “They had mobilised both the state forces and CRPF, but something has gone drastically wrong. They seem to have walked into a trap set by Naxalites,” Chidambaram said.

The Congress leadership primarily blamed the Chhattisgarh government for intelligence failure. It was probably a sophisticated trap to lure the security personnel, it said. But murmurs of criticism aimed at Chidambaram were getting audible in the party. A Congress leader said the home minister needed to be “more tactful” in dealing with Maoists. Another senior functionary said, “Probably, the constant proclamations of the home minister about ending the Naxal menace in a certain timeframe are acting as provocation for such attacks. It would serve well for the minister to quietly continue with the operation and let bureaucrats do the talking.”

Officially, however, the party was firmly behind Chidambaram. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said, “It is a shocking and barbaric incident. This clearly shows we are putting pressure on Naxals, this is a retaliatory attack. I am confident in the medium term, we will get over this. Our hearts go out to the bereaved.”

The BJP too strongly backed action against Naxals, but the Sangh Parivar, which had been generally supporting Chidambaram, is slowly beginning to distance itself from the home minister. Its mouthpiece Organiser’s latest edition had a scathing attack on Chidambaram.