NEW DELHI, May 18, (Agencies): India’s home minister called for the government Tuesday to consider using the air force against Maoist rebels in the wake of an insurgent attack on a bus that killed 35 police officers and civilians.
The rebel strike Monday in a remote area in the state of Chhattisgarh came despite a government offensive aimed at rooting out the Maoists fighters, known as Naxals, who have been fighting one of Asia’s longest rebellions.
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a television interview broadcast Tuesday that the Indian states worst hit by the rebel violence have been demanding the use of air power to bolster government offensives. “The security forces, the chief ministers want air support,” he said in an interview with NDTV. “They are the men on the ground.”
When asked why he cannot convince the Cabinet to authorize airstrikes on the rebels, Chidambaram said: “I’ll try.” Top Indian officials had been reluctant to escalate the fight, arguing it was inappropriate against India’s own citizens.
India is to review its anti-Maoist strategy, a government minister said in comments broadcast Tuesday, after rebels killed 35 people in a landmine attack on a bus. Monday’s blast in the central state of Chhattisgarh tore the front off the bus, killing 24 civilians and 11 police personnel. The attack occurred in Dantewada district — a Maoist stronghold where rebels ambushed and killed 75 policemen last month in the bloodiest massacre of security forces by the extremists.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who was to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, argued that the high civilian death toll in the bus attack meant the time had come to “redraft” counter-insurgency strategy.
Chidambaram — under intense public pressure to step up the fight against the rebels — acknowledged that changes were needed and said he would request wider powers.
“I took to the cabinet committee the case for a larger mandate. I was given a limited mandate. Now we will go back to the cabinet committee to revisit that mandate,” Chidambaram told the NDTV television channel.
The minister noted that the chief ministers of four of the worst-affected states had asked for air power to be used against the rebels — a measure that the government has so far refused to sanction.
Monday’s landmine blast drew widespread condemnation across the political spectrum, with ruling Congress party spokesman Manish Tewari saying it exposed “the barbarity” of the Maoist movement.
The left-wing guerrillas have stepped up attacks in response to a government offensive that began late last year in the forests of the so-called “Red Corridor” that stretches across north and eastern India.
The insurgency began in the state of West Bengal in 1967 in the name of defending the rights of tribal groups, and has since spread to 20 of India’s 28 states.

Prime Minister Singh has labelled the Maoists the biggest internal security threat to India.
Tribal groups and many rural areas have been left behind by the country’s economic development, and the poverty and discontent with local government corruption is seen as a major source of Maoist support.
Chidambaram has previously said the government needs to tackle the root causes of the insurgency and he has offered talks with the rebels — on condition they renounce violence beforehand.
Senior Maoist figures have said they will talk only if the government puts an end to the national offensive, codenamed Operation Green Hunt, that involves 56,000 paramilitary forces in six states in addition to local police.
So far, New Delhi has resisted using the military against the insurgents, though the recent deaths have prompted calls for a larger assault.
On Sunday the rebels killed eight villagers in an apparent revenge attack on suspected police informers in Chhattisgarh.
More than 50 Maoists surrounded two villages and killed the victims after abducting them.