Promising that there will be no let-up in the offensive against the Maoists, Union home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the rebels had thrust a war upon the state and the government may have to reconsider its stand of not using the air force.
Speaking to reporters after he attended a memorial ceremony for the CRPF men killed in the Dantewada attack, Chidambaram said ?at this moment we must remain calm and hold our nerves? in the fight against the Maoist threat to India and democracy.
?There is no proposal to use Army. We think the state police assisted by central paramilitary forces are sufficient to overcome the Naxalite threat. It is our present assessment of the threat,? he said. But responding to another query, he said: ?At present there is no mandate to use the air force or any aircraft. But if necessary, we will have to revisit the mandate to make some changes.?
?If this is war, and I wish to say that we have never used that word, it is a war that has been thrust upon the state by those who do not have a legitimate right to carry weapons or to kill. The State?the Central government and affected state governments?is discharging its constitutional and legal duty to protect the people,? he told the press, flanked by Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh.
Pointing out that the Maoist goal was to overthrow the established authority of the government through an armed struggle, Chidambaram said ?We cannot, and we shall not, allow them to succeed in that goal.? He said the state has a legitimate right to deploy its security forces to resist, apprehend, and, if necessary, neutralise militants.
?To our call for talks after giving up violence, the Naxalites have answered by a savage and brutal act of violence… To talk of talks now would be to mock the supreme sacrifice made by 76 jawans. If a militant group abjures violence, it gives up violence, we will consider talks,? he said.
In Ahmedabad, air chief marshal P V Naik said the IAF will be ready to join operations against the Naxals if a decision is taken by the government. But he said he was personally not in favour of use of air power.
?The military?Air Force, Army and Navy?are not trained for limited lethality. The weapons that we have are meant for the enemy across the border.?
?Let us say that the Air Force is called in for attack in a Naxal locality and needs to fire a rocket, which is fired at a minimum distance of 1500-1800 metres… from that distance, we are not able to visualise what the target is. Unless we have 120% intelligence that they are enemies, it is not fair to use air force within our borders. The basic thing is the Naxals are our own citizens,? Naik said.