Ranchi:
Is the government planning an offensive against Jharkhand's Naxals next week? The Home Minister has travelled to Ranchi and met with top officials there, offering only this explanation: "These are words invented by media...I mean by all of us here. "Launch" ... "offensive"..these are words which are invented, I have never used those words."
But Jharkhand is getting ready for elections in the shadow of recent Naxal attacks that have shown a new willingness to kill women and children. The Taliban-style beheading of a kidnapped policeman earlier this month left Jharkhand shocked, and many convinced that to ensure peaceful polling, a large operation will have to flush out Naxals from the area.
The Home Minister is more guarded, saying only "Whatever action to be done to the Naxalites will be done by the state police...I do not think the problem of the Naxalites will in any way come in the way of holding, free and fair elections."
P Chidambaram's cautious response may be based, at least partly, on the fact that a police officer was being held hostage by Naxals in West Bengal while he was discussing Maoists in neighbouring Jharkhand.