With the installation of the Congress government led by Y S Rajashekhar Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, the process of reconciliation and groundwork for peace process with the People’s War Group (PWG) has begun. Soon after becoming the Chief Minister, Reddy said his government would create a congenial atmosphere for talks with the PWG. He is also reported to have asked the police force to exercise restraint and not take any step that might vitiate the atmosphere. These developments have raised serious questions about strategic rationale for a peace process with the organization which has been responsible, to a great extent, for expansion of left-wing extremism in India and is not ready to compromise on its core ideology of capturing power through revolutionary warfare.

The current gesture of the Andhra Pradesh Government did not come as a surprise. Criticizing the ‘hard-line’ approach of the Chandrababu Naidu government, the Congress had stated that the Naxal issue was not merely a law and order problem but had serious socio-economic dimension. The Congress, which had an electoral alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS)â€â€