Trinamool Congress misrepresenting facts

THE REAL PICTURE: Trinamool Congress MPs demonstrating outside the Parliament House in New Delhi on Tuesday alleging CPI(M) atrocities in West Bengal. In the photograph, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (second from left), displays a poster saying it is a camp of “CPI(M) goons” in the Jangal Mahal area of West Bengal. It is actually a picture (at right) of armed Maoists outside a camp in the forests of Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. That file photo, taken by our Staff Photographer Akhilesh Kumar, appeared in this site on March 15, 2010. Photo: R.V. Moorthy

Even as West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee on Tuesday described the Trinamool Congress of being a party of “grotesque lies and slander,” an MP of the party, demonstrating with some of her colleagues outside the Parliament House in New Delhi, was seen sporting a poster with a picture apparently depicting Maoists in one of their training camps in Dantewada. 

The poster, borne by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, representing Barasat in West Bengal's North 24 Paragans district, read: “All camps by CPI (M) goons in Jangal Mahal areas must be disbanded.” Below this was a picture showing men with their weapons. 

The same picture appeared on the online edition of The Hindu on March 15 this year (http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article245722.ece) under the heading “Centre Warns of Retaliatory Attacks by Maoists” with the caption: A Maoist training camp in the forest of Dantewada district.” The Trinamool MPs were demonstrating against alleged atrocities by the CPI(M) in West Bengal. 

This begs the question: Was the Trinamool Congress MP in question (Ms. Ghosh Dastidar) misrepresenting facts and passing off a picture showing armed Maoists in a camp in Dantewada as one of CPI(M) goons in the Jangal Mahal area (a forest area in West Bengal spanning the three south-west districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia)? 

The Trinamool leadership has been claiming that CPI(M) activists have been entering the Jangal Mahal area and setting up camps for their armed activists under the cover of the on-going security operations against the Maoists there. 

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has even demanded that the security operations be withdrawn even as she has claimed that they were being used by the CPI(M) to gain ground in the region, particularly in those areas of Paschim Medinipur district considered to have been the hot-bed of Maoist activity. 

On Monday, the eve of his retirement, Director-General of Police Bhupinder Singh told journalists at the State Secretariat that “no evidence of the presence of armed supporters of the CPI(M) has been found in Lalgarh and its vicinity.” 

(Courtersy : The Hindu)

Martyrs' Day rally in West Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress for “being a party of grotesque lies and slander,” describing its chief Mamata Banerjee a “practised liar who utters falsehoods every single day.”

“Here is a political party [Trinamool Congress] that is surviving on lies….How long will the people of West Bengal accept these lies? I believe that they will on no account accept the grotesque lies and slander of this party,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said at a Martyrs' Day rally to commemorate the death of 80 supporters of Left parties in a protest demanding food in the city in 1959.

Cites examples

Mr. Bhattacharjee cited several examples of “unfounded claims” made by Ms. Banerjee _ the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was responsible for incidents such as the devastating fire at the Stephen Court, the Jnaneswari Express derailment, the accident in Sainthia and the disruption in her convoy on her return from Lalgarh.

“Lies, all lies,” he emphatically declared to a stadium full of supporters, who responded with a thundering applause.

‘Party sans agenda'

The Trinamool was a party “without a policy or agenda” and it solely depended on Ms. Banerjee's word. The State had already suffered many losses because of them, Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

Referring to the Trinamool-led agitations in Singur and Nandigram, he said: “Everyone in 

West Bengal knows the losses that the State has suffered. Shall we accept more of these injustices? The nexus between the Trinamool and Maoists began in Nandigram where we could not defeat them and had to retreat……It will have to be seen if we can limit them to the Jangalmahal region or will the joint army of the Trinamool and Maoists convert all of West Bengal into Jangalmahal.”

“We will set it right”

Several people in the State had begun to believe in the lies being spread by the Trinamool and it was the responsibility of the supporters of Left parties to reach out to them and convince them otherwise, he added.

Chairman of the State Left Front Committee Biman Bose said the Trinamool was trying to project themselves as “friends of the poor,” but instead were representing the interests of landlords and the old order.

SFI fast prompts officials into action

 Effort pays:Additional Joint Collector G. Joshi Babu and other 

officials offering fruit juice to fasting SFI leaders in Kadapa on Tuesday

Additional Joint Collector G. Joshi Babu, Deputy Director of Social Welfare Madhusudana Rao, executive director of BC Corporation and superintendent of ST welfare officer Chandrasekhar assured fasting SFI functionaries that they would examine the SFI report and resolve problems enlisted.

They promised to provide drinking water supply and drainage facilities in schools and hostels and put up complaint boxes in all the institutions. They assured to secure release of about Rs. 7 crores towards pending fee reimbursement for BC and EBC students and Rs. 1 crore for SC and ST students. They offered fruit juice to the fasting SFI functionaries.

Twenty seven vacant teacher posts in Kasturba schools would be filled within 10 days, Mr. Joshi Babu assured. SFI leader Sivaram said assurances given for several years remained unfulfilled. Advocate Sampath Kumar said girls lacked protection in residential schools.

CPI(M) leader N. Ravisankar Reddy, SFI leaders Sankar, Siva and others were present.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)