‘Maoists cannot be hired’

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BHUBANESWAR, Oct 17: Maoists are not professional assassins, retorted Mr P Vara Vara Rao of the Revolutionary Writers Association of Andhra Pradesh while reacting to reports that the minority community had hired Maoists to assassinate VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati. "Those who dish out such cock and bull stories are ignorant of the history of Naxal movement in this country. Maoists cannot be ‘hired’," he asserted.
Mr Rao had spent three days in Kandhamal and was replying to questions at a Press conference here today when he made the statement.
Asked why Maoists had killed Laxmanananda Saraswati, Mr Rao said: "The operation was perhaps in line with deliberations at their last party congress wherein fundamentalism was considered the second biggest threat, after globalisation, to the poor of the country...I am not their spokesperson, but I think they wanted to send a clear message across to the fundamentalists and divisive forces."
Significantly, he recalled that after the December 2007 violence in Kandhamal district, leaders of the Peoples War had denied their involvement and had also said that if they had been involved they would have killed Laxmanananda Saraswati and not poor tribals or dalits.
Now, the Naxals have claimed responsibility of killing Laxmanananda Saraswati, but shockingly, others like political parties and Sangh Parivar and vested interest groups refuse to accept it.
"The entire game plan is to get electoral benefit. The fundamentalist forces want to rid the country of minorities and some political parties feel this suits their vote bank," he alleged. "Organisations like the SIMI which believe that communism, capitalism and secularism have failed and Islamism is the only option are termed as terrorist outfit and are banned but an outfit like Bajrang Dal or VHP which wants a Hindu Rashtra are not deemed as terrorist organisations," he observed