December 30, 2010
CM reply avoids real issues: Didi
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s reply to Union home minister P Chidambaram’s letter on the presence of ‘harmad’ camps in Jangalmahal has avoided the real issues, Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata on Wednesday. Rejecting the chief minister’s reply as “a casual oneâ€, she said the letter from the Union home minister had raised important questions. “It asked the state government to follow rajdharma.†But, according to Mamata, the CM had not addressed those issues. The chief minister has denied the existence of any “harmad camp†while there are more than 250 armed camps in Jangalmahal, said Mamata. Instead of dealing with the question of armed camps, the chief minister had tried to divert the issue to the presence of Maoists in the area. “It is not a reply. It is an expression of the chief minister’s arrogance,†she said. “Even if Maoists are present in the area, it is for the Central forces to deal with them. What are the armed goons doing there?†asked the Trinamool chief. She also wondered why armed cadres of the ruling party were moving with the joint forces. According to her, the situation in Bengal is different from that in other states. “There is no democracy in West Bengal. A one-party rule is prevailing here and the entire state has been turned into military barracks,†she said. Political parties are not allowed to function because of Section 144 and the media is being kept out of areas of operation of the armed CPM cadres. While Bhattacharjee explained in his letter that the camps in question housed CPM supporters evicted from their villages, Mamata wondered why should there be firearms in camps of refugees. “Arms are being ferried in vehicles belonging to state ministers,†she charged. More than 250 people had been killed in the past eight months. The governor, too, had expressed concern over the situation in the state, she reminded. Mamata also defended the use of the word ‘harmad’ by the Union home minister, saying ‘harmad’ meant ‘dasyu (raiders)’. “Those who attack and kill people can of course be described as harmads,†she argued. Denying the accusation of the chief minister that Trinamool was in league with the Maoists, she said “Marxists and Maoists are two faces of the same coinâ€. She recounted how CPM had “recaptured†Garbeta and Keshpur with the help of the Maoists in the past.
Courtesy: The Times of India
