West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee seems to have his hands full of the Maoist issue. His government is conducting a joint operation with the central force against the Maoists at Lalgarh and other areas of West Bengal. To compound his problem, Union Minister of State for Coal, Statistics & Programme Implementation Sriprakash Jaiswal today revealed that the Centre had taken prior consent of the chief minister before it banned the CPI-Maoist on Monday.
“The Centre banned the Maoists after getting a recommendation from the state government,” Jaiswal told reporters after holding a meeting with the chief minister here. He further clarified that “without the state’s recommendation, the Centre does not ban an extremist organisation.”
This information, however routine it may sound, does not go well with the CPI(M) brass, especially general secretary Prakash Karat and state unit secretary Biman Bose. Both are of the view that the ban won’t yield the desired result.
Last week, Bhattacharjee met both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and discussed the Maoist menace. It was after that he told his party and the media that the Centre was mulling a ban on the Maoists. Immediately, Karat went on record saying that it won’t serve any purpose.
However, the Centre went ahead with the ban and Bhattacharjee was too keen to impose it in his state as well.
In the last 24 hours, the state police have arrested at least three Maoists and are searching for more. The central government is also extending support to the state by sending additional force to Lalgarh. Today, some more companies of central force were deployed in Lalgarh, Goaltor, and adjacent areas to bolster the joint force already stationed there. State Chief Secretary Ashokmohan Chakrabarty visited Lalgarh today to assess the situation and oversee the arrangements at various relief centres there.
But the chief minister’s consent to the Centre’s move is viewed by his party’s leadership as that of playing into the hands of the UPA government. According to party insiders, the CPI(M) is currently under attacks from the Opposition Trinamool Congress and the Maoists in the state. The CPI(M) leaders, including the chief minister, feel that the Maoists are being actively encouraged by Trinamool leaders to resort to violence to destabilise the state government.
Since the TC is a partner in the present UPA government, it would be politically advantageous for the Left, if the Centre was shown to be acting unilaterally in banning the Maoists. But the fact that the chief minister has given prior consent or recommended to the union home ministry for the ban of the Maoists, has taken away that advantage. This issue is likely to be raised and discussed in the CPI(M) state secretariat meeting on Friday, where the chief minister might be in for some criticism.
Meanwhile, an aggrieved Mamata Banerjee, the union minister of Railways and the leader of the opposition party TMC, has stated that she would definitely take up the issue of Center’s decision to take part in the joint operation in Lalgarh with Pranab Mukherjee tonight. Her contention is that the state government is using the bogey of Maoists to repress the people’s genuine grievances. According to Mamata, the present violence and lawlessness are all fall out of the Left politics in the state. Here, she claims, the CPIM is now fighting against its own dissidents and putting the label of Maoists on the dissidents to cover it up. After talking to Pranab Mukherjee, she may pursue it further at the union government level. (EOM)
