Kolkata, April 29
Veteran CPM Leader Jyoti Basu today lashed out at AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi for criticising the CPM and making wrong statements on the state government’s activities.
Talking to mediapersons after attending today’s Politburo’s meeting at the Alimuddin Street, Basu questioned Sonia Gandhi’s “authority” to adjudge the performances of the front government.
“She has little knowledge about Bengal and that is why she was making some wrong observations”, Basu remarked.
He was reacting to Sonia’s criticism made at public meetings in Behrapore and Malda yesterday on the state government’s handling of the law and order situation and the rural development works.
Basu said in today’s Politburo meeting, there was no discussion about the inclusion of Subhas Chakraborty, the senior most party leader in the state, in the central committee as well as the state committee. He said the issue was not in the agenda and he also did not raise the matter.
Incidentally, Chakraborty, who is the state’s transport minister, did not get any berth either in the state committee or the central committee so far, though some of his junior party colleagues, had been taken in both committees which Basu said, was an injustice to him.
He wanted the Politburo to decide at today’s meeting if Chakraborty could be included in these committees. But his proposal was ignored. This was the first meeting of the Politburo in Kolkata after the Coimbatore’s party Congress for facilitating sick Basu to be present at the meeting. Basu due to his poor health could not attend the Coimbatore party
Congress, in which both he and Harkrishen Singh Surjeet, the two living founder members, had been dropped from the Politburo and the central committee. Basu , however, was later included in the Politburo as a special invitee, though he did not have any voting rights.
The politburo meeting was brief in which there were discussions on the allotment of duties and distribution of work among the members as per the decisions taken by the party at the Coimbatore meeting.
The Politburo also discussed about the party’s strategy to be adopted against the UPA in Parliament and outside on their failures in different fields.
The CPM has already decided to launch a nationwide agitation against price rise and other anti-people policies, which the Manmohan Singh government adopted ignoring their common minimum programme.
PTI adds: Four Trinamool Congress (TC) supporters were injured in a clash between activists of the TC and those of the CPM in Nandigram block today, the police said.
The trouble started at Simulkundu village when CPM cadres tore up some posters of the Trinamool Congress for the ensuing panchayat elections.
As the TC workers protested, the ruling party supporters beat them up.
Local TC leader Swadesh Das claimed that the CPM cadres fired seven rounds at the Trinamool workers. However, the allegation was dismissed by the police. All injured were admitted to the hospital, they said.
