Both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led governments at the Centre pursued a broadly consistent approach in handling the Maoist problem in the country, said K. Vijay Kumar, former senior security adviser to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), who worked with administrations of both parties.
Maoism to be eliminated from India by March 31: Home Minister Amit Shah
He said that the years 2006-2009 were the most difficult and the gradual gains made over the years found a resolute push in the past two-years when Home Minister Amit Shah set a deadline of March 31, 2026 to eradicate Left Wing Extremism from the country.
Mr. Kumar, who is a retired 1975-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and former Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) till 2012, said in an interview with The Hindu that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had rightly recognised Maoism as the foremost internal security threat.
After the 2010 killing of 76 security personnel in Chhattisgarh, former Home Minister P. Chidambaram pushed through centrally assisted funding for counter-Maoist operations, the officer who resigned from MHA in 2022 said.
