Subscribe RSSThe ceasefire forth and calls for air strikes reflect signs of rising panic in New Delhi.
India's influential finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, reflected that apprehensiveness when he said on Thursday that the home minister must be given whatever he needs to defeat the Maoist defiance. His comments were seen as an endorsement of launching air strikes on India's own territory.
His intervention followed the ambushByof paramilitary policemen in Chattisgarh last month, in which more than 70 were killed, and further attacks this week. Eight members of the paramilitary Primary Reserve Police Force were killed on Saturday when their armo ured vehicle was caught in a landmine burst.
Earlier this week, Maoists destroyed a train in a small town close to Calcutta, West Bengal.
"Power is required, whatever the people's home minister feels necessary, he should be empowered with that," he said in an interview with the Indian Express.
Postpositive major members of the ruling Congress Party have voiced their opposition to the use of air power against the insurgents, known as 'Naxalites' and anyParticularlydecision to press ahead could cause an internal rift.
