New Delhi, May 21: Union home minister P. Chidambaram seems to have turned into everyone’s last point of appeal. After the BJP’s constant praise of him, it is the turn of the CPM to seek his help.
Stung by railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegations that the Left Front was trying to stir up communal tensions in West Bengal, CPM leaders in both houses of Parliament, Sitaram Yechury and Basudev Acharia, complained to Chidambaram on Thursday.
They handed over a letter to him, seeking his intervention to set the record straight against Mamata’s allegations.
The duo also gave him letter from Left Front chairman Biman Basu that explained what was happening in Bengal in the run up to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls scheduled for May 30.
The letter states: “ Mamata is deliberately stoking panic and terror among the Muslim minority population, claiming she has secret information that a section of the police will help the Left Front in unleashing communal violence in the state.’’ The home minister has not been particularly supportive of his cabinet colleague Mamata’s tall claims made in the recent electioneering.
She announced in Kolkata that she held discussions with Chidambaram and that the polls for the Bengal assembly would be advanced from next year to within three months.
Chidambaram, however, publicly clarified that he had spoken on a lot of issues with Mamata. “ But I do not have the power to advance elections in West Bengal. That is the prerogative of the Election Commission of India.” The Left is also comforted by the fact that Chidambaram did not listen to Mamata’s pro- Maoist stand in Bengal earlier.
Instead, he supported the position of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and said action was needed against the Maoists, who consistently targeted CPM workers.
With Chidambaram continuing to speak out against the Maoists, calling them “ cruel” post the Dantewada incidents, the CPM seems to have new- found bonhomie for him.
“ During the last 33 years of the Left Front government in West Bengal, the state and its people have seen unprecedented communal harmony and fraternity… any effort to blemish this record are not in the interests of our country’s unity and integrity.
Casting such wild and unsubstantiated allegations, especially by a Union cabinet minister, also violates the provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951.” The CPM leaders also sought Chidambaram’s direct intervention. “ If indeed the Trinamul Congress leader and Union minister does possess some secret information, we request you to obtain it and act on it in consultation with the state government.
If on the contrary, there is no such information — as surely is the case — we request you to set at rest the apprehensions and tensions that have resulted from the Union minister’s utterances,” the letter further states.
—-Agencies