Kolkata: The police firing at Nandigram caused major "damage to the Left and progressive movement in the country" and "tarnished the image of the Left Front Government," general secretary of the All-India Forward Bloc (AIFB), Debabrata Biswas, said here on Tuesday.

"The central committee [of the party] severely condemns the police firing at Nandigram on March 14. It is a tragic and unfortunate incident," Mr. Biswas said at the end of the three-day meeting of the AIFB central committee.

There should be no deviation from the earlier understanding that it will be the "Left Front, which runs the Government and not the other way around," Mr Biswas said. "This will only create problems," he added.

His comments follow a recent meeting of leaders of the ruling Left Front convened to discuss the Nandigram developments. Reservations on the police firing by certain constituents including the AIFB had prompted the holding of the meeting.

The party's State leadership had also threatened to reconsider being part of the Left Front Government unless decisions were taken by it in a more collective and transparent fashion.

Mr. Biswas pointed out that the State Government's "high-handedness" aggravated the situation at Nandigram and sullied the pro-people image of the Left Front Government that had got to be accepted as a "model" government.

The Left Front Government should rectify its approach towards decision-making considering the anguish expressed by the common people as well as the intelligentsia over the Nandigram issue, the AIFB central committee concurred.

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