Talks begin today, a detail Andhra glossed over: PWG is banned by the Centre

It’s the same ordinance that replaced the controversial POTA on September 21 by grafting most of the provisions of the anti-terrorist law into the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA).

The new law not only includes practically the entire POTA chapter on banning of terrorist organisations, it also contains a verbatim reproduction of the schedule listing out the 32 groups that were already banned.

The entry listed at serial number 25 in UAPA’s schedule is: ‘‘Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) – People’s War, all its formations and front organisations.’’

This entry was first included in POTA’s schedule in December 2001 at the instance of the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, to supplement an already existing ban on PWG under a state law. The purpose of the POTA ban was to make it hard for PWG cadres to operate from neighbouring states as well.

Even though UAPA has perpetuated the all-India ban on PWG, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, has allowed the state ban to lapse in July and suspended all anti-naxalite operations.

PWG leaders and militants have since come overground and, under the benign gaze of the police, built memorials for long-killed naxalites and held huge public rallies in several places, including Hyderabad.

Thus, the Reddy Government has totally disregarded the fact that the Central ban on PWG has remained in force and has even been renewed by the Manmohan Singh Government.

The Reddy Government is all set to meet PWG leaders tomorrow despite their repeated proclamation that they would not forsake their ideology of armed struggle, which manifested only last year as an attempt on Naidu’s life.

Tomorrow’s high-level meeting between the state Government and PWG is in the teeth of at least two provisions of the newly amended UAPA.

• Section 38 penalises with imprisonment up to 10 years any person ‘‘who associates himself or professes to be associated with a terrorist organisation.’’

• Section 39 imposes the same penalty on any person who ‘‘addresses a meeting for the purpose of encouraging support for the terrorist organisation or to further its activity.’’