Now,Buddha stung by Wiki

In a strong reaction Bhattacharjee said the report was a distorted account of his discussion with the US Treasury Secretary. “It surprises me that my conscious reiteration of the publicly stated policies of our government and our party has been one-sidedly represented by the author of the cable. It is obviously a distorted account of our discussion,” a statement of the CM issued Monday evening said.

Bhattacharjee said he admitted to Paulson that no state could be free from the impact of market economy. “It is well-known that while we are opposed to neo-liberal globalisation and liberalisation,we cannot insulate ourselves from its impact. Therefore,we ‘engage’ with this process to protect the working people from its anti-poor consequences. It is apparent that the author of the cable has misrepresented this,’’ the statement said. It added: “On the WTO our stand has been to fight for a more equitable arrangement and paradigm. This has been partially reflected in the said cable.’’

Bhattacharjee also made it clear that the Left Front government had always favoured foreign investment. “On the question of investment it has been our long stated public position that we have a positive attitude towards private investment,including foreign investment for augmenting production and productive capacity,technology accrual and most importantly employment generation. On Dow Chemicals,I had pointed out that subject to Dow owning up the responsibility for compensating the victims of Bhopal disaster,we want the company to invest in the proposed chemical hub project. Quite clearly,this aspect of responsibility of Dow Chemicals has been left out in the cable,’’ the statement said.

The Trinamool Congress criticised the CPM. “This clearly exposes the fissures within the CPM. Buddhadeb had always been pro-US. But in public he denies it. It depicts the total ideological hollowness of the Marxists,” said party leader Saugata Roy.