Swami Agnivesh

New Delhi, May 31: Home minister P. Chidambaram has written to rights activist Swami Agnivesh that the Centre is ready to talk to the Maoists if they desist from violence for 72 hours.

Chidambaram’s May 11 letter is being seen as significant because he has not insisted that the rebels surrender their arms. Sources said Swami Agnivesh, who has good relations with the Maoists, had passed the letter on to senior rebel leaders and that they had responded positively to the offer.

Chidambaram’s letter outlines five steps leading to the proposed talks:

• The CPI (Maoist) must announce that it will abjure violence. “To start with, they could say that they will not indulge in any violent activities beginning a specific date, say June 1, 2010. (This is only an example and it could be any other date);”

• After the Maoist announcement, the Centre will contact the chief ministers of the affected states and prepare a response well before the specified date. “The response will include an invitation to the CPI (Maoist) to hold talks;”

• On the specified date, “we would expect that the CPI (Maoist) will stop all violent activities. We would closely observe whether the CPI (Maoist) will maintain its promise of non-violence for 72 hours. It goes without saying that during the said period of 72 hours, the security forces will not conduct any operations against the CPI (Maoist);”

• The Centre hopes that “talks will begin sometime during the period of 72 hours when there is no violence”

• Once the talks begin, “we would expect that the CPI (Maoist) will continue to maintain its position of ‘non-violence’ until the talks are concluded”

Swami Agnivesh, 70, is president of the World Council of Arya Samaj and is known for his efforts to free bonded labourers, and to stop caste oppression and female foeticide.

The Maoist leaders are believed to have told Swami Agnivesh that they were not responsible for the Jnaneswari Express tragedy and that the sabotage was a CPM plot to settle scores with railway minister Mamata Banerjee.

Ammo for troops

The government has sanctioned procurement of armoured and bullet-proof vehicles besides arms valuing nearly Rs 300 crore to arm paramilitary troops, including those operating in Maoist-infested areas.

The Union home ministry in the last one month has sanctioned 119 Tata light armoured troop carriers worth Rs 49.90 crore and 98 bullet proof Mahindra Rakshaks and three LATCs at a cost of Rs 37.97 crore, P. Chidambaram said.

The ministry has also approved procurement of night-vision devices for rifles at a cost of Rs 184.80 crore.