Maoist threat to PM, Fadnavis taken seriously: Hansraj Ahir

Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir on Saturday said the alleged Maoist threats to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have been taken seriously and any attempts will be thwarted.

“We are not frightened and we would thwart every attempts,” Ahir said, adding that the Centre, state governments of Naxal-affected states, police machinery and intelligence set up is constantly on the job.

“In the last four years, we have succeeded in reducing the geographical area of influence, we have closed in on them,” Ahir told a Marathi news channel during a breakfast chat.

Ahir’s statement comes in the wake of the Pune police unearthing a plot by Maoists to assassinate Modi in a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type' incident and the Chief Minister’s Office here having received two letters on threats to Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio and his family members, because of the encounter in Gadchiroli in which 40 Naxals were killed.

Ahir, who represents the Lok Sabha constituency of Chandrapur that neighbours Gadchiroli, said in the last few years, the police and security has got successes in Naxalite-affected areas in the states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Orrisa and Bihar.

On the Koregaon Bhima incident, he said that after the clashes we would that such incidents have never happened in the past. “Naxalism was not new to us…but this incident was different and after investigations, we found the role the Maoists…this is a serious issue,” he said, adding that “urban Naxals” supported the violence.

“Naxalism is Naxalism…whether you throw stones or fire bullets…or you (urban Maoists) support them….we treat all as same…it’s a crime,” Ahir said.

Congratulating the Maharashtra police for making the arrests, he said it was a major breakthrough. “They do not have any ideology, any rationale and engage in violence….I appeal to them to lay down the arms and come in the fold of India’s Constitution….India is a democracy….we have a government, whosoever is in power.”