Buddha skips CPM politburo meet

HYDERABAD: The CPM politburo meeting on Friday focussed on finalising its agenda for the two-day Central Committee meeting beginning Saturday. The party's poll debacle in West Bengal and Kerala, including the attacks on party workers by Trinamool cadre, was high on the agenda.
All the top leaders including Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Manik Sarkar, Biman Basu, VS Achyutanandan, Sitaram Yechuri, K Varadarajan, Ramachandra Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan, K Balakrishna and B V Raghavulu attended the meeting.The only notable absentee was former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
Speaking on the sidelines of the politburo meeting, Biman Basu said Buddhadeb could not make it as he was not keeping well and doctors had advised him not to take up long journey. "He is permitted to travel between his house and party office. The media need not try to read anything between the lines on this issue," he said.
Basu was highly critical of the Trinamool government. "If Mamata government has issued an ordinance saying that the Singur land would be given back to the farmers, then it is unconstitutional". He said the state assembly was in session and as per Article 213 of the Constitution, no ordinance can be issued when the assembly is in session. She should have taken the assembly and the political parties into confidence and made an announcement in the assembly, he said. Basu also said that soon after coming to power in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee and her party had started unleashing violence against CPM activists. He said the government should realise that CPM is not a party that can be wiped out that easily. "Yes, we have lost the elections, but that does not mean we are out."
Raghavulu said the Central Committee would not only analyse the reasons for the poll debacle, but also work out strategies to take up agitations on various issues.