Pune: Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma on Friday said there is a sense of resentment among the people of Bastar district over INDIA bloc nominating former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy as its vice presidential candidate. Reddy was the top court judge who in a verdict in 2011 outlawed Salwa Judum, the state-sponsored militia raised to take on the Naxal movement in Chhattisgarh.“When he (Reddy) was nominated as the INDIA bloc candidate for the post of vice president, people of Bastar called me and asked me if he was the same judge who delivered the verdict against Salwa Judum and left the Naxal-affected district shivering in fear,” Sharma said.Sharma was in Pune to deliver a lecture on ‘Overcoming Naxal Challenge in Chhattisgarh’ organised by Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini. Cabinet minister Chandrakant Patil and former Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe were present at the event.Sharma said Salwa Judum means peace march. “Affected by the Naxal violence, local villagers set up their own camps, and to protect those camps, some of them took the responsibility. Later, state govt began providing some assistance, and it became a people-driven movement to take on Naxalism,” he said.The deputy chief minister said the people associated with Salwa Judum were given training and converted into cadres, but in 2011, the Supreme Court termed the movement illegal. “The judgment was not based on legal findings, but it was more academic. The verdict was given without hearing the people of Bastar who were most affected by Naxal violence,” Sharma said.“The judgment given by him (Reddy) left people of Bastar terrified as after that, several of them became victims of Naxalites. They still remember his name. They asked me how anyone can accept such a person as the candidate,” Sharma added. NDA has nominated Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan as its candidate for the vice president’s post.
