Maoist ban: LF slams Buddha

KOLKATA: The state Cabinet meeting was full of sound and fury on Tuesday with Left Front ministers coming down heavily on chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee over the government's stand regarding the ban on Maoists.
Though an agitated CPM minister Sushanta Ghosh wanted to say something, he was stopped by the CM, who asked him to present it at the appropriate forum.Later, Ghosh told reporters: "It is we who have contributed to the making of Chhatradhar Mahato."
Most ministers asked the CM to come clean on the issue as Bhattacharjee found it extremely difficult to convince his Cabinet colleagues that he had no hand in it as the ban had been decided and imposed by the Centre. "Don't misunderstand me, you all know the laws," he was quoted saying at the meeting.
The meeting, which went on for nearly 70 minutes, contained outbursts from Samajwadi Party minister Kiranmay Nanda and Marxbadi Forward Bloc minister Pratim Chatterjee, both threatening to sever ties with the Front.
Bhattacharjee's Cabinet colleagues also alleged that he never made it clear during the meeting whether the ban would be implemented in West Bengal, something he only clarified later at a press conference . They alleged that he ducked the issue arguing that the state would examine how the ban could be imposed in Bengal. The CM also said that fighting the Maoists politically and at the administrative level was not contradictory.
PWD minister Kshiti Goswami said if a portion of the money being spent on the Lalgarh operation was used on the backward people, things would not have come to such a pass. "People are also having mixed reactions about the Lalgarh operation. For, many believe that the government is against the local tribal people and suppressing the democratic demands of the poor," he said.
When Goswami pointed to the requirement to address the socio-economic need, Bhattacharjee said this was already being addressed through a task force functioning for some time under the chief secretary. "Even if I am for the ban, it is not right to make such public statements without arriving at a unanimous decision at the Front meeting," Pratim Chatterjee said.
Nanda was very clear about his stand. "It is not mandatory for the state to implement any Act that the Centre brings in. That has happened before. If a wrong is being committed, there is no reason why one should keep quiet about it. I am condemning the ban," he said.