New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma on August 23 targeted the opposition vice president candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy for his 2011 ruling related to Salwa Judum movement.
While delivering a lecture on “Overcoming the Naxalite Challenge in Chhattisgarh” at Pune, the Dy CM recalled “After the 2011 decision, Bastar was left terrified. A wave of killings by Naxals swept across the region, and thousands of people were victimised. Many were shot dead, maimed, or strangulated.
“I would like to point out that the judge who delivered that order is today the vice-presidential nominee of the Congress. People of Bastar have asked me whether this VP nominee is the same judge. They remembered his name. How can anyone accept such a person?” said the BJP leader as per the media reports.
“The Salwa Judum movement started in Bastar as a response to the atrocities committed by the Naxals,” he said.
Locals set up their own ‘camps’ to protect themselves from the Maoists, without any assistance and initial involvement of the government. The movement was entirely people-driven and the government got involved only later, providing some assistance, said Sharma while highlighting that the term Salwa Judum means “restoration of peace”.
The Dy CM added that the locals opposed the Naxals and asked them to vacate their villages. Once the Maoist began attacking the camps, the government started appointing members of Salwa Judum as Special Police Officers”.
“In 2011, Justice Reddy delivered a verdict declaring that the setting up of Salwa Judum was wrong, describing it as an unconstitutional parallel system and ordered that it be disbanded,” he said.
The Dy CM alleged that the decision was largely an academic one and not based on sound legal reasoning.
“People of Bastar still say that while the Supreme Court heard arguments from petitioners in Delhi and from the police, their own voices were never heard. The Court delivered a judgment without listening to those who were most affected,” he said.
Sharma underscored that the BJP government in Chhattisgarh is committed to eleiminate armed Naxalism from Bastar by March 2026 and implementing the Bharatiya Constitution in every corner of Bastar.
“Naxals are not fighting for anybody’s rights. They only believe in the ideology of Maoism, which says that power comes from the barrel of the gun, and with this ideology, they are trying to create terror among the locals,” noted Sharma.
Sharma remarks arrived on the heels of Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticism of the opposition VP candidate over the same.
Speaking at a conclave, the Union Minister alleged that had not Reddy delivered the verdict against Salwa Judum, a tribal led movement against Maoists in Bastar in mid-2000, the red terror menace would have been eliminated from the country by 2020.
“Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgement had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020. He is the person who was inspired by the ideology that gave Salwa Judam judgment,” Shah said, referring to 2011 SC judgement on Salwa Judum, during the conclave.
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