The Hindu : National : Nandigram violence: Jyoti Basu’s poser

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Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
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Nandigram violence: Jyoti Basu’s poser

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu on Friday wondered whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was aware that nearly 2,000 supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were still unable to return home in the Nandigram area, months after the violence there.

“Does he know this? Has he been told about this by Mamata Banerjee,” Mr. Basu asked, referring to the recent meeting the Trinamool Congress chief had with Dr. Singh in New Delhi.

The Prime Minister reportedly expressed anxiety over the deaths at Nandigram after she drew his attention to the matter. Ms. Banerjee was accompanied by some persons who she claimed were victims of the atrocities perpetrated by CPI(M) workers at Nandigram and Singur.

“What about the nearly 2,000 persons who are our people and who continue to live in camps. Did Mamata Banerjee tell him [the Prime Minister] about them,” Mr. Basu asked.

“The Government is ours. Yet these people have to live in camps. Nothing can be more shameful than this,” Mr. Basu said.

“Both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Research and Analysis Wing have been against us [the Communist Party of India-Marxist] all along. I am not saying that they [CBI] should act in our favour but they are not even neutral.”

Mr. Basu was referring to the CBI investigations into the death of teenaged girl Tapasi Malik, whose charred body was found at the Tata car project site at Singur on December 18, 2006.

State CPI(M) leaders described the arrest by the CBI of a local party leader, Suhrid Dutta, in connection with the alleged murder of Tapasi Malik as a “political conspiracy” aimed at discrediting the State Government and building a case for its dismissal.

“The CBI was never in our favour. I found this out when I was in the Government,” Mr. Basu said. “Yet the Chief Minister [Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee] was willing to call them in [to conduct the inquiry].”

Mr. Bhattacharjee recently said his government wanted the CBI investigation speedily completed so that those responsible for the crime, whichever party they belonged to, could be brought to book.

Asked whether the CBI, in the course of its investigations, was conspiring against the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government, Mr. Basu declined to comment as the matter was in court. “They go by their considerations, even though some good work has been done by them.”

But he raised doubts about the efficacy of its investigative methods.

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