| The latest salvo has came from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who has so far chosen to look the other way as her lieutenants, notably Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, missed no chance to attack the CPI(M). |
| In her "Letter to Congress Workers," published in the latest issue of the party mouthpiece, "Congress Sandesh," Gandhi sought to draw a parallel between the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express, Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh and killing of farmers in Nandigram. |
| Condemning the attack on Samjhauta, she wrote, "We also condemn instances of Naxal violence unleashed in Chhattisgarh, killing both a sitting MP and scores of police personnel. The needless loss of life at Nandigram must be equally condemned, bringing into focus, as it does, certain inequitable policies being pursued in the name of economic progress. The issue is not industrialisation, it is the forcible acquisition of fertile land from villagers who do not wish to part with them." |
| Reacting, CPI(M) Politburo member and MP Sitaram Yechury said his party had already expressed regret over the killings. Yechury's colleague in the Politburo, Brinda Karat, was more scathing in refuting the Congress president's suggestions. |
| "There are drawbacks in Soniaji's system of information. There is such a government in West Bengal as would never acquire any land without the consent of farmers. If Soniaji is really interested in knowing, she should have gone to Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana to see how land is acquired there. Only then would her information be complete." |
| Gandhi's swipe at the Left has come as a surprise to many in the Left, coming as it does after her talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Yechury. |
| The two had called on her a fortnight back. |
| Apprising her of the situation, the Left leaders had complained against Priyaranjan Dasmunsi for his diatribe against the Left. They had evidently failed to convince her. |
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