Kolkata, April 06: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee lashed out at Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Monday asking him to “ mind ( his) language”. Bhattacharjee was reacting to the home minister’s statement at a meeting in Lalgarh on Sunday that the “ buck stops at the chief minister’ table” in case of a breakdown in law and order in the state.
“ Of course the responsibility is mine. ( But) ‘ buck’ is the not the language of politicians. It is a slang,” Bhattacharjee said.
Chidambaram had said he was unhappy with the law and order situation, especially political clashes, in about a dozen police station areas in the state and that Bhattacharjee himself agreed with him.
The chief minister retorted: “ I had only told him that there are difficulties in maintaining law and order in these areas. … Everybody knows what the ( law and order) situation in the country is and who is carrying out what responsibilities. You ( Chidambaram) carry out your responsibilities and let me ( carry out) mine.” The home minister’s barbs at the chief minister were apparently triggered by a need to perform a balancing act in the midst of mounting pressure from leaders of the state Congress and the Trinamool Congress.
These leaders had expressed their unhappiness about Chidambaram’s refusal to visit Mongolkot, where a group of Congress MLAs had been assaulted by CPM activists recently.
Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee had said on Saturday that the home minister’s failure to visit the areas where supporters of the state’s Opposition parties were being attacked by the CPM workers would only embolden these aggressors.
The chief minister said the Union home minister was entitled to pass judgment on the law and order situation in a state but insisted that Chidambaram focused only on one side of the story.
Bhattacharjee said the home minister, while reminding the chief minister of his duties, should also have told the Opposition to “ behave”. “ He ( Chidambaram) expressed his views. I told him that the Opposition, too, has a responsibility in improving the law and order situation. Else what message will it convey to the ordinary Opposition workers? Unless they cooperate, the situation will not improve,” Bhattacharjee said.
If Chidambaram’s comment has left the
chief minister fuming, the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, too, found no reason for cheer in the home minister’s statements.
“ He ( Chidambaram) said nothing. He should have said more. His ‘ Green Hunt’ has been converted into ‘ Red Hunt’ by the CPM. They are driving out Opposition activists with the help of the joint forces,” Mamata said from Delhi.
The home minister visited the Maoist- bastion of Lalgarh on Sunday to take stock of the security measures in the Junglemahal area.
He reached out to the villagers of Lalgarh asking them to stop providing support to the Maoists while hearing out their complaints. He also renewed his call for talks with the Maoists if the rebels abjured violence.
—Agencies