PC in Lalgarh

The Home Minister visits Lalgarh, a Maoist infected area of West Bengal.

Calling Naxalism the country’s “first enemy,’’ Union home minister P Chidambaram said the government was determined to uproot Maoists in the next two to three years. Hours after visiting the Maoist heartland in Lalgarh in West Bengal, Chidambaram said Naxalism has assumed gigantic proportions as it had not been dealt with properly in the last 10 to 12 years. “Naxalism is the first enemy of the country,’’ he said, addressing a public meeting at Avadi. “We are determined to uproot Naxals. Only because we are tolerant over the past 10 to 12 years, we’ve got this big task now,’’ he said, adding “the Centre is firm, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are firm.’’ He described Naxals as cowards. “There is no place for Naxalism and terrorism in India. We will not give them any place. Till we have the last drop of blood in our body, we will aggressively fight against terrorism and Naxalism and assure you that we would bring them totally under control in two or three years,’’ he said. Defending the huge defence budget (Rs 147,344 crore), he said it was necessary as Pakistan and China were treating India as their “enemy’’. “Pakistan is training terrorists and allowing them to infiltrate into India and is trying to drive a wedge between Muslims and Hindus here. Whenever we want to talk to Pakistan, we have to talk about terrorism, but that country frowns upon the idea,’’ he said