Naxal talks: MP ready to mediate
Kabir Suman says innocent tribals worst hit in the anti-Maoists operation
Singer-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman, who has blown hot and cold with the party leadership over his stand on joint forces’ operation against the Maoists, has expressed his willingness to mediate between the naxals and the Centre, much to the dismay of party supremo Mamata Banerjee.
While Banerjee has not taken kindly to his public utterances during the last week’s dharna in front of Parliament, the rebel TMC MP is even ready to be expelled from the party for the cause he has been fighting for, sources close to Suman told Deccan Herald here on Monday.
Worst sufferers
According to Suman, the innocent tribals are the worst sufferers in the current operation to flush out the Maoists from the Lalgarh region, and it is the cause of the tribals which he has been espousing and not that of the rebels.Earlier this month, Maoist leader Kisehnji alias Koteshwar Rao had said the Leftwing rebels would shun violence if the Centre welcomed intellectuals to facilitate the process and specifically named writer Arundhati Roy, former bureaucrat B D Sharma and Kabir Suman as possible mediators.
“Now the ball is in the government’s court. If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram want to talk to the Maoists to resolve the issue, I think the matter can be sorted out,” Suman said.
Being middleman
“I am absolutely ready to mediate the process of dialogue if both the parties come forward and talk it out. I have no moral scruples being middleman between the Maoists and the Centre,” he said.
Kabir Suman represents West Bengal’s Jadhavpur constituency in the Lok Sabha. Incidentally, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee also won from the Jadavpur assembly seat. Suman, who denied having any contact with the rebel leaders, felt that the tribals have a very strong reason to raise their voice against the ongoing operation against the Maoists and criticised the Centre’s decision to intensify the operation.
Arundhati Roy had earlier expressed her readiness to be an independent observer if the Centre agrees to hold peace talks with the Maoists but cannot act as a representative for the Maoists.
DH News Service
