With three consecutive victories in assembly elections and good performance in last two Lok Sabha elections in Chhattisgarh, everything seems to be going right for Chhattisgarh Chief Minster Raman Singh who has begun a third term.
“In the last two elections we managed to win 10 out of 11 seats in Chhattisgarh. This time we will win all 11 seats” an upbeat Chief Minister told The Hindu in an exclusive interview .
When asked if some BJP leader were “uncomfortable” with the prospect of Narendra Modi becoming country’s prime minister, Mr.Singh said, “There is no such thing. Party has unanimously declared Narendra Modi as the PM candidate and he is going to be the PM after elections”.
“Everything is clear now and everyone is happy inside the party. Even Advaniji is contesting the election,” Mr.Singh pointed out, stressing there might be some small matters which were there in every political party.
On the entire BJP campaign being focused on Modi , the Chief MInister did not feel that it was against the RSS principle of “society first, individual last”. He said it was just one of the strategies of campaigning.
Reacting to the accusations of nepotism on his son getting BJP ticket from Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat,the three term CM said, “My son was given the ticket by the party after working for the organization for eight years. I had no role to play”.
On the problem of Naxalism in his state , the CM claimed that his government managed to restrict the Naxals to a small area in Bastar .
“The areas which used to be highly sensitive are now almost free from any sort of Naxal activities be is Sarguja or Rajnandgaon. Even in Bastar region, the area of Naxal domination is reduced to Dantewada and Sukma districts only. And whatever violent attacks they are carrying out is out frustration” added the CM.
But the CM also accepted that that the state needs effective mechanism to tackle the IED blasts carried out by the Naxals and also said that the Darbha valley where the recent incidents took place, was beneficial to the Naxals “because it is being a border area, they (Naxals) can cross over to other states easily from that area”.
On the accusation by Congress leader Ajit Jogi that Chhattisgarh was being ruled by bureaucrats with no direction from political executive, Mr.Singh said, “It’s not correct. The bureaucrats are there only to implement the decisions taken by political executives and not to take decisions.”
Reacting strongly to the accusation of human rights violations and Tribal displacement made by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on his government, Mr.Singh said, “His ( Rahul Gandhi) homework is poor. There are no problems in Chhattigarh as far as land issues are concerned. Our policy in this matter is the best in India and we provide better price for the land acquired. We even provide employment to the affected people and if they are not able to get jobs, we provide them with minimum wages".
On thousands of Tribals languishing in Chhattisgarh jails on petty offences like providing food or water to Naxals ,the CM claimed that his government has let off many people especially in tribal areas.
“Over 1.60 lakh small cases were settled in one day. On Naxal-related offences, we are trying to let off those who have no involvement,” Mr.Singh told The Hindu.
