Anti-Maoist campaigner dares rebels

MALKANGIRI: Launching a scathing counter attack on Maoists through posters, Total Violence Free Odisha Campaign convener Bharat Bhusan on Sunday termed the rebels as agents of anti-development and murderers of tribals.

The campaign will continue till the Naxal movement is wiped out, Bhusan said while reacting to a five-page release issued to the press by the CPI(Maoist) Kalimela Area Committee recently. The campaigner, in a four-page open letter put up at the boundary wall of Saberi Primary School at MV-79 village, slammed the rebels saying their ideology is fake and they are killing innocent tribals in the name of revolution.

“The rebels are torturing tribal people. The revolution being carried out by the rebels to capture power at gun point is not a movement, it is hooliganism”, the letter reads.  It adds the rebels are shedding crocodile tears for the tribals, but doing nothing for their development. “What have the Maoists done for the development of the tribals across the district and for the families of the slain Maoist cadres”, questioned Bhusan. Tulsi mountain, Kurub, Poplur and cut-off regions are not the parental properties of the Maoists, he added. “If the rebels are really concerned for the development of the tribals, let them give up guns and work for their welfare”, Bhusan said.

Daring the rebels, the anti-Maoist convener stated that he is ready to have an open  discourse with the rebel leaders to establish who is at fault. Bhusan urged CPI (Maoist) central and district leadership to decide the venue and timing for the public debate. Notably, the CPI (Maoist), in its recent release, had warned Bhusan for his remarks and to abstain from the poster campaign against them.