Former Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra Pravin Dixit strongly defended Pune police action of arresting five ‘human rights’ activists saying the menace of ‘Urban Naxals’ is growing alarmingly in the country. The ‘Urban Naxals are spreading their tentacles across the country thick and fast and crackdown against them is necessary,” he said in an interview conducted by a Marathi TV channel recently.
The former DGP, stressing his point, further said that former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in a statement had asserted that Naxalism was the greatest internal threat to India. The UPA Government had identified 128 organisations and pointed out that the activists and sympathisers of Maoists were making repeated attempts to penetrate into urban areas through their frontal organisations.
The then Home Minister P Chidambaram had ordered blacklisting of such activists. The activists of such organisations included the five ‘human rights’ activists arrested by Pune police from different parts of India. The arrested activists include Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Gautam Navlakha in Delhi, Sudha Bharadwaj in Haryana and Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonzalves in Maharashtra who were accused of Maoist links by Pune police in connection with Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Replying to a question, the former top boss of Maharashtra police defended the police talking to media on the case. “Considering the fingers being pointed out towards police for arrest of the five activists, the State police had to come out with documentary evidence and other incriminating facts to clear the air,” he said. The “incriminating” material Pune police had collected in the course of their investigation point out that five accused were also clearly found to be a part of the criminal conspiracy and they were found to be playing a very vital role in the criminal offences.
“The highly educated urban Naxals or Maoist sympathisers oppose the development works initiated by local authorities and democratically elected representatives in rural areas and provoke the Naxal activities. The so-called intelligentsia term the development works as wrong and ‘inspire’ the Naxalites to get rid of the elected representatives by violent means including assassinations. A plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also exposed by Pune police after going through various documents seized from the arrested activists,” the former DGP said.
“The Jawaharlal Nehru University and other similar institutions are breeding ground of left activists who provoke Naxal violence in many parts of the country. Despite major actions by security forces in eliminating Naxals in several parts including Gadchiroli and Chhattisgarh, the Maoists raise their ugly heads from time to time with less or more intensity,” Dixit said.
The former DGP said the word “Revolution” is being misused in the name of freedom. In fact, Naxalites have infiltrated in various movements being launched in the country. Misguided youths get trapped in the nasty schemes of things planned by Maoists. Since rural areas are no more ‘safe havens’ for the Maoists mainly due to awareness, the highly educated Maoist sympathisers, in the cover of human rights activists, are spreading their activities.
