what is inside a key letter for Naxal talks with Centre

Digvijay Singh's letter to Himanshu Kumar

(Our comments on the following letter The problem with this particular letter is that it promises nothing--so there is nothing in it that anyone can be held accountable to.  The implicit drift of the letter is -- "I (Digvijay Singh) have spoken to Chidamabaram-and Chidamabaram is a nice and reasonable man."  And then it continues on to say how even he, Digvijay Singh, himself was such a nice and reasonable man as the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.  And it parrots the same old administration line about Naxalites being the main reason why there is no "development", which is why action against them is unavoidable.The only thing of value in the letter is that fact that it confirms that Chidambaram has been made aware of, or rather he cannot get away with being blind to, the atrocities committed by the security forces and has promised to look into them.)                                                                                   31st October, 2009 Dear Shri Himanshu Kumar, After our meeting I met Mr. P. Chidambaram our Home Minister. I explained your views in detail to him. I also gave him my own views on this subject. He was extremely positive and was open to talks for peace with anyone any time. His only pre condition was to stop violence. He also made clear that laying down of arms was not a pre condition for talks.   I also conveyed to him about the implementation of Forest Right  Act amending the Mining Regulation Act , Land Acquisition Act and implementation of PESA in Schedule areas. I also conveyed to him about the atrocities committed by the Police and Para Military Forces which you had mentioned. He has assured me that he would look into these issues. As a Chief Minister of MP I had appealed to the Naxalites to stop violence. If they did I would withdraw police out posts and also reduce force from these areas which I did when there was no incident for three months.   The development process in these Naxalite affected areas has completely come to a stop and the tribals and the other forest dwellers  are the biggest losers. It is also the responsibility of the Civil Society activists to convince the Naxalite leadership to shun violence and come for talks.   I am sure you all would also use your influence to convince the Naxalites to shun violence. With regards, Yours sincerely, (DIGVIJAYA SINGH) Shri Himanshu Kumar Vanwasi Chetna Ashram Kawalnar, Dantewara Chattisgarh-494 449