Kolkata: Responding to Mamata Banerjee`s
deadline to them for laying down arms in `junglemahal`,
Maoists on Saturday said the West Bengal government was "not
serious" about talks and advised the Chief Minister to stop
the use of "provocative language".
"We were serious about talks and did everything according
to our commitment, but the way Mamata Banerjee reacted at her
public meeting on October 15 hints that the government is not
at all serious about it," Maoist state committee secretary
Akash said in an open letter, apparently referring to the
deadline which expired on October 22.
The letter to government-appointed interlocutors said if
the government was serious it should give its opinion directly
in writing to the Maoists who would do the same so that there
was "transparency in the talks process".
Referring to the call to lay down arms, Akash said in the
letter that surrendering arms was never on the agenda when
talks were held with interlocutors on two previous occasions
and "will never be in the agenda in future".
On the Chief Minister having called the Maoists "supari
killers" at her meeting in Jhargram on October 15 where she
had given the seven-day ultimatum, Akash said, "She needs to
understand that we are neither contract killers nor mafia and
she will have to stop this kind of provocative language".
PTI
