Newindpress.com,20 Feb,2008
BHUBANESWAR: While the security forces have launched the biggest ever operation to flush out Maoists from the forests, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s much-hyped ‘discovery of India’ tour has hit a road-block. Scheduled to start from Orissa in the first week of March, the tour will pass through the Naxal-infested zone.And the timing has made it uncertain in the wake of Nayagarh mayhem and the combing operations. The Congress is upbeat but the administration has remained non-committal. In view of the attention the tour will draw, it is apprehended that Maoists could be up to something to make their presence felt further. Coming at a time when hundreds of Maoists have melted in the jungles after the mayhem, many feel the tour is fraught with risk.However, senior Congress leaders asserted that the tour is very much on and there is no question of cancellation. But the police are guarded in their response. ‘We have not received the tour programme of Rahul Gandhi. Let the programme come, we will examine it,’ a top police official told this website's newspaper.According to party sources, Rahul is likely to start his journey from Kalahandi district. He is scheduled to tour undivided Koraput comprising Malkangiri, Rayagada and Nabarngpur districts, besides Ganjam and Gajapati districts in the southern region, they said.Rahul is also scheduled to tour tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts in north-western Orissa. Besides addressing public meetings, Rahul will interact with the tribals informally in villages during the tour. Barring Kalahandi, Rahul’s entire route included Naxal-infested areas. Congress leaders are upbeat as this would be Rahul’s first visit to Orissa after his elevation as general secretary. While party leadership had suggested Rahul to start his journey from the South, the young leader chose to launch it from Orissa.
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