With Trinamool Congress facing the heat over the multi-crore Saradha scam, CPI(M) today accused Mamata Banerjee's party and the West Bengal government of sleaze and trying to protect the scamsters.
"Clearly, the Trinamool Congress and the state government are protecting such scamsters," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said, adding that the arrest and questioning of several TMC leaders made it clear that the party was "equally guilty of large scale sleaze involving the loot of over 17 lakh poor people in Bengal".
Maintaining that CPI(M) had been demanding probe by central agencies since UPA-II government was in office, he said the previous government had "pleaded helplessness" as the TMC state government was not agreeing to such investigations.
"It is now clear why the Trinamool Congress and its government refused such an investigation. It was precisely because it wanted to hush up this scam and, instead of confiscating the properties of the scamsters, decided to nominally compensate some of the victims, financing this through the state exchequer," Yechury said in an editorial in the party organ 'People's Democracy'.
"It can only be hoped that the CBI, SFIO, ED and other agencies expose the entire scam and bring the guilty to book while adequately arranging for the compensation of the victims," he said.
Yechury also accused the TMC of whipping up communal passions to consolidate their electoral base, "fearing the possible early resurgence of the Left Front".
"This has dangerously played into the hands of the RSS-BJP to mount a counter communal offensive in order to consolidate its electoral base and possibly try to make a maiden entry into the Bengal state assembly.
"Such competitive communalism creates a potentially volatile situation in the state shattering the atmosphere of communal peace and social harmony that had been the hallmark of the over three decade Left Front rule in the state," the CPI(M) leader said.
