"Supreme Court, under Justice Sudarshan Reddy, ruled that fight against Naxalites was illegal", - said Amit Shah in Lok Sabha

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that Salwa Judum started in 2005 as a government-supported people’s movement. 

Tribal youth were made Special Police Officers (SPOs) and were given training to fight against those spreading terror. 

Salwa Judum was started by Shri Karma, who was later killed by the Naxalites. 

On 5 July 2011, Nandini Sundar and others filed a petition in the Supreme Court. 

"The Supreme Court, under Justice Sudarshan Reddy, ruled that this fight by the state against Naxalites was illegal and immediately ordered the surrender of their weapons. As a result, their weapons were taken back, and the Naxalites selectively killed people associated with Salwa Judum." 

And the same Justice Sudarshan Reddy later became the opposition’s candidate for the post of Vice President. 

Those who respect the country’s law and order would never make Sudarshan Reddy their candidate. 

He said that if a person, while acting as a judge, uses his personal ideology, wears constitutional robes, converts his ideology into an order, and delivers a judgment that leads to the death of thousands of innocent tribals, then we strongly condemn this judgment. 

Ideology cannot be placed above the welfare of the people.

Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi Ji, since 2014, approval has been given for constructing 17,589 kilometres of roads in Naxalism-affected areas, out of which 12,000 kilometres of roads have already been built. 

Development is happening because Naxalism is gradually being eradicated. 

We have installed nearly 5,000 mobile towers at a cost of ₹6,000 crore. 

Narendra Modi Ji has also decided to install another 8,000 4G towers under two other schemes. In the last 12 years, 1,804 bank branches have been opened, 1,321 ATMs have been installed, 37,850 Banking Correspondents have been appointed, and 6,025 post offices have been opened. 

All this has happened in just 12 years. 

We did not hold talks with the Maoists; we eliminated them and pushed development forward. We have built 259 Eklavya Model Residential Schools. Along with this, 46 ITIs, 49 Skill Development Centres, and 16 Skill Development Centres have been established. 

We have spent nearly ₹800 crore on all these in the last 12 years. Under civic programmes, works worth ₹212 crore have been carried out, related to health camps and medicines. 

We have also launched programmes for tribal youth exchange. For security, we introduced the SRE (Security Related Expenditure) scheme, under which ₹3,000 crore has been provided to the states in 10 years. We also brought the Special Infrastructure Scheme and provided ₹5,000 crore under it. He asked that why did all this not happen from 1970 till now? 

Whenever previous governments tried to do it, those people would carry out blasts and kill them. We eliminated those who carried out the blasts, and now development is taking place.

He said since 2014, a clear policy and strong political will have been attached to this work. 

He said that PM Narendra Modi has made it absolutely clear that no illegal activity will be tolerated in any part of the country - whether it is Kashmir, the Northeast, or Left-wing Extremism-affected areas - and strict action will be taken against it. 

There has been complete alignment between the Centre and the states. 

We have improved the capacity of the states in governance, government functioning, and policing. Coordination between CAPF and state police has been enhanced. 

A system has been put in place to percolate actionable intelligence down to the ground level and responsibilities have been clearly defined. 

We started an All-Agency Approach and struck not only at weapons, but also at the entire network including NIA, ED, intelligence agencies, as well as their funding and support systems. 

We introduced an effective surrender policy. 

In development and governance, we left no vacuum. Earlier, where there was no presence of the state, today the state is present. 

The biggest reason for the defeat of Naxalism is that the state has now reached every village and panchayats have been formed there. 

For development, we adopted a Whole of Government approach, and for tightening the noose of security, we adopted a Whole of Agency approach.

ends