In what is being viewed as a weapon that can cut both ways, CPI(M) Politburo member and his party’s face in Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee once again admitted to the “grave wrongs committed by some of our party men” in areas like Netai by eliminating their political opponents.
The former Chief Minister addressing a rally at Midnapore on Sunday said the January 2011 mass killing at Netai was a “grave wrong committed by some of our partymen, many of whom had since fled the area” condemning criminalisation of politics.
The senior Marxist leader made the measured statement before quickly following it up by wondering whether the ruling Trinamool Congress had similar guts to admit to their faults.
“We and our men go continuously through a cleansing process but do the Trinamool follow the same lineIJ We admit to our faults but does the Trinamool do soIJ” he asked wondering why the ruling outfit was not admitting to the numerous attacks on Opposition parties, murders and scams related to chit funds and teachers’ appointments that it was committing.
Bhattacharjee had earlier admitted to his party’s Nandigram blunder in a similar way by saying that the police had done a wrong by firing at the villagers killing eight people. Nine people were killed on January 7, 2011 when alleged CPI(M)mercenaries attacked villagers at Netai a small village in West Midnapore district. While several of the attackers were arrested some others were still at large.
In fact, while Nandigram was Bhattacharjee’s Trafalgar, Netai turned out to be his Government’s Waterloo even as it was routed and reduced to two digit mark in the State Assembly winning for the first time in four decades less than 70 seats.
Bhattacharjee’s “calculated” statement that come barely a few months before the parliamentary elections is considered as a ploy to paint an honest picture of the left Front on the one hand and prick the Trinamool on the other for engaging in corruption and fanning violence in the State without any repentance.
Bhattacharjee’s statement assumes significance against the backdrop of a multitude of scams and rising incidents of rapes and campus violence taking place in the State. His statement also comes barely days after the CBI came out with a charge-sheet vindicating the then Marxist Government’s role in the Nandigram police firing which catapulted Mamata Banerjee to power.
While the left Front leaders wondered whether this was the right time for the former Chief Minister to rake up issues that were already in the cold storage Trinamool MP from East Midnapore Subhendu Adhikari “congratulated” the Marxist leader saying “Buddhababu has finally confessed to his party’s criminal past” denying his own party’s involvement in any such affair.
“Why should we own up to anything when our men have not committed any such crime, when we are involved in upholding the ideology of Mamata Banerjee only!” he said.