Basu pooh-poohs Advani’s instruction

CALCUTTA, March 4: West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu today dismissed the possibility of any Central inquiry into the alleged deterioration of law and order in the State.

“I have nothing to say,” Basu retorted when asked about his reaction to Union Home Minister L K Advani’s reported instruction to the Home Ministry to examine Trinamool Congress charges of “large-scale” killings of political opponents in the State.

The octogenarian Chief Minister came down heavily on the Vajpayee Government at the Centre, once again dubbing it as “barbaric and uncivilised”.

Advani’s instruction followed Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with him in Delhi yesterday, where she detailed alleged CPI(M) atrocities on the Trinamool Congress and other political parties and “breakdown in law and order machinery” in the Left-ruled State.