Andhra Update: Back to Square One

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S.R. Reddy has banned the eight Naxalite organisations including the CPI(Maoist). Last year, he had allowed the ban on these organisations to lapse, hoping the Maoists would sit down with him and discuss peace over tea. The Maoists had other plans and the year saw encounters, bloodshed, as policemen, Maoists and mostly innocent people died in the crossfire.

On August 15 this year, on our Independence Day, the Maoists fired indiscriminately at a public function and killed a senior Congress MLA C. Narsi Reddy. And suddenly, Union home minister Shivraj Patil, who had allowed the CM to let the ban lapse, assured him all help in containing Naxal violence and approved reimposition of the ban.

Here's Andhra home minister Jana Reddy: "Maoists misused the opportunity, and resorted to mindless killings." You should have know better, Mr Reddy.