Defending arrest of the five Left-Wing activists, the Union Home Rajnath Singh said that they were held after proper investigation and concrete evidences were collected against them.

“They were hatching a conspiracy to bring down the government by violent means using their ideology. It is the duty of the government deal firmly with such divisive forces which are a threat to the democracy,” he reacted when asked about the arrest of Leftist leaders in Maharashtra.

The Union minister said that dissent has a place to raise their voice in the democracy but that did not mean that they would make attempts to break the country. “We have never suppressed dissenting voice. The NDA’s record is clean in this regard. But we will not spare anyone taking law into hands to divided the nation,” said he.

The minister pointed that it was surprising that Naxals are now moving into cities to misguide people with their divisive and violent ideology. “Intelligence inputs have confirmed that they are fanning in urban areas also with their nefarious designs. Those arrested recently are part of that group,” he pointed.

The minister pointed that the matter was pending before the court which will decide their fate.

Singh said that a few of them were arrested earlier also on similar charges and the Maharashtra government has taken utmost care in completing its investigation and collecting concrete evidences before laying hands on them.

The Union Home minister reiterated that the NDA government is committed not to allow misuse of the SC/ST Act. “We are committed not to allow misuse of the SC/ST Act. People’s fears are unfounded. There is nothing new in the new amended Act. It is same as earlier in the Congress regime. So there is no need for anyone to fear that it would be misused against any innocent,” assured he.

He also directed all the state government to issue strict instructions to their law enforcing agencies in ensuing that provisions of the Act are not misused in any case.

On the devaluation of Indian currency against dollar, he said that it was a global phenomenon and people of the country should not be worried about it. “It will stabilise once global economy improves and our export increases,” he claimed.

He said that hike in crude prices was also a factor which strengthened dollar against rupee. On spiraling prices of petroleum products, Singh said that the government was working on a formula to arrest the prices of petrol and diesel.

“Despite such small reverses, foreign companies are making huge investment in India and it’s a big achievement of the present government,” he claimed.

He assured that government was working on a peaceful and permanent solution to the problem in Jammu and Kashmir. “Changes are taking place and soon we will begin a permanent peace process. Big changes are taking place. Terrorists who had kidnapped 11 people had to release them after our Army gave them a befitting reply,” claimed he.

Earlier, the Union Home Minister flagged off maiden Indigo flight to Gorakhpur linking Delhi and opened India Post Payment Bank at the GPO in Lucknow, his parliamentary constituency.