Talking Points

The People’s War (PW) and the Andhra Pradesh government have come one step closer to peace, naming their teams for talks. CM Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has asked ex-bureaucrat S.R. Sankaran to head the government team. The PW’s six mediators will include members of civil liberties groups. Interestingly, Sankaran, a key member of the Committee for Concerned Citizens’ and previously a hostage of the Naxals, has also been named a negotiator for the PW. The ias officer was among the seven senior government officials kidnapped by the PW in 1987. The rebels have appointed state committee secretary Ramakrishna and Akkiraju Haragopal to work with the negotiators. After the modalities are sewn up, senior PW leaders are likely to sit down for direct talks.