Can talk if Naxals give up arms: Home Minister

A day after Jharkhand Special Branch Inspector Francis Induwar was beheaded by Naxalites, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram made it clear that security forces would continue to engage them till they laid down arms but said states could open a dialogue with Naxals on “issues of development, neglect, deprivation and composition of governance structures” if they gave up the path of violence. “We are a civilized country and these are our people we are confronting. Naxalites must take the path of democracy and dialogue, and abjure violence,” Chidambaram said in Mumbai. And in Thiruvananthapuram, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said “the inability of state governments and their developmental initiatives to reach the people” was “the main reason behind the growth of Naxal movements in certain states”. He called for strengthening youth organisations to keep the young away from the influence of Naxalism.