Despite the charges swirling over him, off and on there has been talk of his becoming a second edition of the Manmohan Singh phenomenon. New Delhi: P. Chidambaram, the urbane leader from Tamil Nadu of the Congress Party, has been in the headlines since the 1980s, during his steady rise that began from his
The reemergence of the Naxalites (rechristened Maoists) after 30 years of near lull has been an issue that has generated a lot of public debate. Despite getting more than its share of media coverage, it has not been easy to construe the pith and substance of the multi-faceted issue.
State Supporters v. Maoist Sympathizers
The debate surrounding Maoist violence has been extremely polarized. Things didn’t help when Home Minister Chidambaram took a Bush like -with us or against us- stance on the issue.
While a set of people completely thrash state violence, the others thrash Maoist violence. Paradoxically both groups maintain- we condemn all forms of violence. While state supporters described the Maoists as “bloodthirsty terrorists” and “cowardly killers,” the sympathetic descriptions have ranged from “misguided ideologues” to “Gandhians with guns.”