Left Front Week long sit in protest concludes

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday questioned the Trinamool Congress's silence on the development, A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed the charge-sheet against 23 activists of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee in connection with the May 28 Jnaneswari Express derailment case, as the party had held the Communist Party of India (Marxist) responsible for the incident.

Mr. Bhattacharjee said that just ahead of the May 30 civic elections the Trinamool Congress had launched a “vicious campaign” claiming that the CPI(M) was responsible for the incident. But the party is silent now that the CBI investigation has revealed otherwise.

“Why did you lie to the people? It was not an insignificant lie; it was uttered after the death of 150 persons. And today you are silent,” Mr. Bhattacharjee asked.

He was addressing a rally on the concluding day of the week-long programme organised by the State Left Front Committee, which was observed as the North-Bengal-Jangalmahal-Sunderbans day.

Mr. Bhattacharjee, who has earlier described the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as a “practised liar,” said “it has been proven today that you were lying.”

The CBI inquiry was ordered upon the insistence of the Opposition, but once the findings have been revealed there is no word from the Trinamool Congress, he said.

“Why are we speaking about the Maoist threat in every district? It is because we want to limit them to the areas in Bankura, Purulia and Paschim Medinipur,” the Chief Minister said.

Describing the Communist Party of India (Maoist) as a “party of cowards,” he said that the people of the Maoist-affected region had staged a turnaround.

Biman Bose, Chairman of the State Left Front Committee, said that the movement in the Maoist-affected areas is often described as “a struggle of the adivasis” or a “Santhal resistance”, but of the 212 people who have been killed in the Maoist-affected Jangal Mahal area, 115 of them are adivasis themselves.

(Source ; The Hindu)