'Christians, not Maoists, killed Swami'

BJP MP from Balasore M A Kharabela Swain has given a clean chit to Maoists in the killing of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati in Kandhamal, which sparked off widespread violence in the state, reports Vikas Pathak.

This is one compliment that will surely take the Maoists by surprise.

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Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Balasore in Orissa M.A. Kharabela Swain has given a clean chit to Maoists in the killing of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati in Kandhamal, which sparked off widespread violence in the state.

Instead, he said, Christian missionaries should be blamed for the murder. Swain said that since Maoists do not kill innocents, it is a clear case of a conspiracy by Christian missionaries.

This deviation from the Sangh Parivar’s long-held line against the Left of all shades has been proudly published in the September 14 issue of Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece.

“Till recently, the Maoists hailed Swamiji as pro-poor and messiah of the downtrodden. Then why should they turn against him? Also, the attack did not occur as a Maoist operation. They would not have attacked when preparations for a grand puja were on and when there was a possibility of hundreds of people getting killed. Normally, Maoists try to avoid killing innocent civilians,” he writes.

Swain said the Maoists had never declared the Swami as a “class enemy” and did not even claim responsibility for the murder, which they always do. So, he concludes, the killing might have been the handiwork of “lower rank neo-Maoists who are Christians” or a “splinter group of Maoists”.

Interestingly, the Organiser had recently praised CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat, who leads the “official Left”, during his stand-off with the Congress on the nuclear deal.