The Andhra Pradesh government today formally invited the outlawed People's War faction of the Communist Party of India, Marxist-Leninist, for talks, urging the Naxalites to come forward with an agenda to settle all issues, including their demand to lift the ban on their organisation.

Home Minister K Jana Reddy announced this after meeting civil liberties activists and intellectuals. Committee of Concerned Citizens convenor S R Sankaran, People's Union for Civil Liberties president K G Kannabiran, and others discussed modalities for the talks.

The participants urged both the state government and the extremists to exercise restraint and not indulge in any act that could spoil the atmosphere.

The home minister promised further conciliatory steps if the PW responds favourably to the invitation. "They have to respond first that they are ready for talks and come out with an agenda," he said. "The government is sincere in its desire to have talks and wants to find a solution. But it would like to go step-by-step."

Listing the steps taken so far, he said there would be no repression of PW sympathizers. People giving food and shelter to the Naxalites would not be arrested.

Referring to the PW's latest demands, spelt out by the organisation's central committee, he said, "All these issues can be discussed only when the PWG comes for talks and declares its agenda.

"Whatever they were expecting is happening. For the last 15 days, there has been no exchange of fire. So where is the question of ceasefire? Ceasefire is normally declared in case of war between two countries."

Jana Reddy said the government would constitute a conciliation committee as early as possible to facilitate the talks with the extremists. He said the government has an open mind about the composition of the committee.

He said the government has withdrawn the rewards on Naxalites to send a message to the police to stop the killings. "There
were suspicions that the police were killing them for the sake of the reward money," he admitted.

The PW has rejected Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's appeal to the Naxalites to stick to the forest areas till the completion of the peace talks. Jana Reddy, however, clarified that it was not the government's intention to prevent the political activities of any organisation.

This is the second time the PW will be holding peace talks with the government in as many years. The first such talks between the Telugu Desam Party government and mediators named by the PW broke down in July 2002 after two rounds of preliminary meetings on June 5 and 20.

The PW representatives — revolutionary poet Vara Vara Rao and ballad singer Gaddar — withdrew from the talks in protest against the killings of PW leaders by the police even as the talks were on.