Maoist violence has come down in the country: Shinde

Kozhikode (Ker): Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said incidents of Maoist violence had come down in the country in the past one-and-a-half to two years. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of inauguration of a BSF unit near Nadapuram, about 70 km away from here, he said documents circulated by CPI(Maoist) were proof of the decrease in Maoist activities. [caption id=“attachment_1409933” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sushilkumar Shinde. PTI[/caption] “In the country, wherever such Naxalite movements are there, Government of India is already careful on this. Maoists have expressed worry in these papers over the decline of their strength,” the minister said. He said he has written to CMs of states to expedite trial of accused in terror cases. “I have already written to Chief Ministers to see those who have been arrested and kept for very long in jail… action should be taken quickly,” he said. Special courts would be set up to speed up trial, he said. Asked why the Centre had not imposed international anti-piracy law on the Italian marines, accused of killing two Indian fishermen off Kerala coast in 2012, he said the law is usually applied in terror cases and killing of fishermen does not come under the category. “Let the court decide on it,” he said. On the Anti-Graft ordinance planned to be introduced, he said it was the promise given by AICC President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to the country. “We were eager to introduce the bill in Parliament, but the situation prevailing in the House prevented us from doing so. We will do whatever we can to do in this regard,” he said. On his controversial remarks on the electronic media, Shinde said he never meant to offend journalists. “There is no question of the dictatorial reign of Congress party. I have been in government for the last 40 years and I know how to behave with the media and journalists. I was talking about the social media,” he clarified. Shinde had stoked a controversy on Sunday evening at a youth Congress event in Solapur in Maharashtra by threatening to “crush” the electronic media, alleging a section of it was unnecessarily provoking the Congress by indulging in “false propaganda” against it. He later did a U-turn, claiming he was referring to the social media and not journalists. Earlier, inaugurating the first phase of the BSF campus at Chekkiad, he said the Centre had granted Rs 50 crore for the centre at Areekkarakunnu to train local youth recruited to BSF. A central school would also be set up there, he said. PTI