Differences crops up in LF over CRPF deployment at Nandigram
Kolkata (PTI): The ruling Left Front on Wednesday could not decide on deployment of the CRPF at Nandigram, with the CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu saying he was ready to hold talks with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for restoration of peace at the troubled area in East Midnapore district.
Briefing reporters after the Left Front meeting, its chairman Biman Bose said, "Jyoti Basu urged for postponement of the decision to deploy CRPF at Nandigram. Other Front leaders also expressed their views. But no decision was taken. The Front cannot take such a decision. It can only be taken by the government".
Junior Front partners RSP, CPI and Forward Bloc have been critical of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's move to seek one battalion of CRPF from the Centre, keeping them in the dark.
Earlier, Basu said, "The chief minister has been told by Front partners to postpone its decision to deploy CRPF in Nandigram and urged to convene all-party meetings to restore peace at Nandigram."
Front constituents also urged the chief minister to make a fresh attempt to hold all-party meetings to restore peace at the trouble-torn area.
The CPI(M) patriarch in reply to a question said he had no problem in talking to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee for restoring peace at Nandigram.
"If needed, I have no problem in talking to her. I have no animosity with her. I can talk to her a hundred times," Basu said when asked whether he would take the initiative and invite the TC chief for talks.
Basu, at his own initiative, had held a meeting with the TC chief on June four after she had stormed out of the first all party meeting on Nandigram convened by Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh on May 24.
Basu also criticised the police for failure to restore peace and ensure return of the evicted people.
"What are the police doing there when roads are being dug up and a large number of armed men are going around on motorcycles?" he asked about Nandigram, where police have been unable to enter since early January when violence first broke out over setting up of a chemical hub. The state government later announced that it would not be set up there.
Basu said that during his tenure as chief minister such a situation had arisen once, but it was tackled.
Asked about Home Secretary P R Roy's statement on Tuesday that firing on Nandigram first started from adjacent Khejuri, a CPI(M) stronghold, Basu said, "who fired first is not the question. Both sides have stockpiled arms. What is the police doing?"
He said that another attempt would be made to hold an all party meeting to defuse the situation.
Bose, however, defending CPI(M) cadres, said "what is one expected to do when one's back is against the wall? They will hit back in self-defence."
Bose, who is CPI(M) state Secretary, said that the agitation appeared to be no longer in the hands of the Trinamool Congress. "It has been taken over by Maoists."
"This has been proved. Two of five landmines laid exploded," he said.
"We believe that this cannot be the work of political parties which have faith in democracy, but that of the underground outfit," Bose said.
When it was pointed out that the state government had not yet confirmed the landmine blasts on Tuesday at Nandigram, Bose said, "it is only those who lost their relatives, can understand the reality".
One CPI(M) man was killed in the landmine explosion, he claimed.
The Left Front appealed to the people of Nandigram and adjoining areas, belonging to different political parties, including Front activists, to take steps for return of peace.
The Front also urged the people of Nandigram to cooperate with the police for restoration of peace and repair of damaged roads and culverts and reopening of educational institutions and primary health centres.
