Amit Shah accuses INDIA bloc’s vice-presidential candidate of ‘aiding’ Maoists

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused the Opposition INDIA bloc’s vice-presidential candidate B Sudarshan Reddy of “aiding” Maoists by delivering the Salwa Judum judgement in 2011.

“If that judgement had not been passed, Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020,” Shah said while speaking in Kerala’s Kochi after inaugurating the Manorama News conclave organised by the Malayala Manorama group.

In 2005, the Salwa Judum, a state-supported civil vigilante campaign, was launched with an aim of targeting villages seen as harbouring Maoists. Armed vigilantes allegedly torched homes and forced villagers to flee to government-run camps.

Translated as “purification hunt” in Gondi language, Salwa Judum was presented by the state government as a spontaneous movement by the region’s tribal community against the Maoists. However, human rights activists accused the Salwa Judum of coercing people into leaving their villages and supporting the group. With the tribal community split between both sides, there were several deaths for months.

In 2011, Reddy, a former Supreme Court judge, was part of the bench that struck down the practice of Salwa Judum, saying that the state actions amounted to “an abdication of constitutional responsibilities” and that it represents “an extreme form of transgression of constitutional boundaries”.

The court also said that Salwa Judum was unconstitutional and ordered the group to be disbanded.

On Friday,...

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