After a successful meeting with the UPA top brass including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wasted no time in criticising Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, terming her comments as coming from someone suffering a ‘juvenile disorder’.
As the Centre has agreed to Bhattachrjee’s two proposals to combat Naxal violence in West Bengal (Banerjee is not in favour of anti-Naxal operations in Bengal), Bhattacharjee also said that he didn’t take her seriously. “Please don’t ask me about Mamata Banerjee and her comments. I don’t take her seriously. When the Prime Minister is repeatedly terming the Naxal violence as the biggest internal security threat, it is unfortunate that one minister is not supporting her own government,” Bhattacharjee told reporters.
Over two days, Bhattacharjee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after holding parleys with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram. The Bengal CM made it clear that he was not averse to Centre sending more forces in the state to corner the Naxals after the recent joint operations yielded “some success”.
“I have requested the Centre not to withdraw 17 companies of paramilitary forces deployed in Bengal now. If they can send more forces, it’s good. But at least the existing deployment should not be reduced,” Bhattacharjee said.
“I also requested the Centre for some joint operation from Jharkhand along the Bengal-Jharkhand border. The government has responded positively to both these demands,” the chief minister said.
When pointed out that Banerjee said whenever the CM went out of Bengal, the CPI(M) cadres unleash violence on Trinamool supports and her party workers were regularly getting butchered by the CPI(M), Bhattacharjee said, “These are all false allegations. This is her juvenile disorder.”
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had been consistently opposing the Centre’s involvement and help to the state in anti-Naxal operations. The joint operations of the Centre and the state started in Lalgarh area in June but Banerjee regularly sent her representatives including ministers there to criticise the operations.
