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PC-Buddhadeb letter sparring hits new low
Tribune News Service & PTI

PC on Friday released copy of the letter sent to Bengal CM (below)

New Delhi, December 31
In a new twist to the ongoing war of words between Union Home Minister and West Bengal Chief Minister, P Chidambaram has described the killings of political workers in the state as “alarming” and said that the violence pointed at the virtual collapse of law and order situation in some areas.

Also, Chidambaram has accused Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of changing his stance over disarming the private armed cadres of Left parties. The Union Home Minister has clarified a few issues, including why he had termed the law and order situation in the state as a “failure”.

A day after earlier letters had been “leaked from Kolkata”, a Home Ministry spokesperson today emailed scanned copies of Chidambaram’s latest letters to mediapersons.

“I am afraid that the view that you now express in your letter is not in consonance with the discussion that we had on October 5, 2010, in Delhi and the assurances that were given to me,” the Home Minister had written to Bhattacharjee. He cited two letters that preceded the October 5 meeting.

“I wish to emphasise that it is important that the armed cadres are disarmed and demobilised immediately,” the letter says.

While agreeing with the Chief Minister on the CPI (Maoist) having a significant presence in three districts of the state, the Home Minister has questioned the CM: “It remains unanswered in your letter if armed cadres continue to take upon themselves the duties of maintaining law and order; what is the role of the security forces?”

The central paramilitary forces have been deployed at the request of the state government. The Home Minister has clarified why he had said “virtual collapse of law and order in parts of West Bengal”. The numbers of killings assessed by the Home Ministry and the West Bengal Government were almost the same and the numbers were “huge, hence the use of the phrase”, the Home Minister said. — PTI