Maoists fighting lost battle, will achieve nothing: Rajnath Singh

JAMMU: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that the Maoists are fighting a lost battle and urged them to shun violence and come to the mainstream of development. 

The Home Minister made these remarks while speaking at an event in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara. 

Singh said that out of 135 districts affected by Maoist violence, only 10 districts remained "worst hit", asserting that there had been a considerable fall in left-wing extremism in the country. 

He stressed that the Maoists, extremists and terrorists were fighting a losing battle.

"As far as the Maoists are concerned, they are fighting a lost battle. Extremism by Maoists has shown a significant decrease ( in the country)," Singh said at a press conference here. 

The Home Minister said that the Maoist influence was spread across 135 districts of the country. 

"Now it has come down to 90 districts. This is the achievement of our four years of rule and if we go further in describing it, only ten districts have been left where there is a high influence of Maoists," he said.

On being asked about reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on the radar of such extremists, Singh said, "We are very cautious about the security of our prime minister".

The senior BJP leader added that the north-east has also seen a dip in extremist activities. 

He said there has been 85 percent decrease in extremism in the northeast. 

Singh, who reached Jammu and Kashmir yesterday for a two-day visit, also visited the border belts of Kupwara and RS Pura. 

Remarks from Rajnath Singh came after Pune Police released letters that point to a Maoist plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Police also released pictures of four more persons involved in the Koregaon-Bhima riots of January 1 that left one person dead and appealed to the public to inform them of their whereabouts.

One of the incriminating letters has been found from the home of Delhi-based activist Rona Wilson, who was among the five activists arrested from different parts of India on Wednesday as part of the probe into the riots conspiracy and "urban Maoist sympathisers".

The letter refers to a requirement of Rs 8 crore to procure M-4 rifles and 400,000 rounds and speaks of "another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident".

Former Prime Minister Gandhi was killed by an LTTE suicide bomber during his campaign for the May 1991 Lok Sabha elections in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

The investigators also claimed that the communication seized from the laptop of one of the arrested persons says that "Modi has successfully established BJP government in more than 15 states... if this pace continues, then it would mean immense trouble for the Maoist party on all fronts".

Accordingly, they were thinking along the lines of "another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident" by "targeting his roadshows" which they thought "could be an effective strategy".

"It sounds suicidal and there is a good chance we might fail but we feel the party must deliberate over our proposal," one of the letters reads.

The latest development in case follows the arrests of Wilson, who is the secretary of Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, advocate Surendra Gadling, General Secretary of Indian Association of Peoples' Lawyers, Shoma Sen, Head of Department of English at Nagpur University (both from Nagpur), Mumbai journalist and 'Vidrohi' editor Sudhir Dhawale, and Mahesh Raut, an activist of Bharat Jan Andolan and a former Fellow at Prime Minister's Rural Development programme in Gadchiroli.

Charged under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, they were produced before a Pune court and have been sent to police custody till June 14.

(With PTI inputs)