Bengal gets hot, PM calls NDA meeting

“I want to personally see the ground realities because reports pouring in from West Bengal suggest that legitimate democratic functioning is not allowed there and violence is continuing unabated,” Bangaru told The Indian Express today.

He will address a public meeting at Midnapore on September 23 and will be back on September 25 with his report.

Laxman claimed that Home Minister Advani’s letter to Chief Minister Jyoti Basu has had a sobering effect on the state government. He said violence had subsided in the state after that. “After submitting my report, I would leave it to the Centre to decide the future course of action,” he said. Laxman said any recurrence of violence would invite Central intervention which may be in the form of another letter, or a Central team or even a directive.

Reacting to Basu’s letter to Advani, party spokesman Venkaiah Naidu said the Chief Minister may be forgetful, but the people are not. It was only last month that Basu had gone on record advising people to attack those who attacked them. “It is a clear admission of the Chief Minister that his government is unable to control the situation,” he said.

Refuting allegations that Advani was influenced by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, Naidu said the observations on breakdown of law and order in parts of West Bengal were not based on Trinamool’s assessment. An NDA delegation had found it to be so. NDA coordinator George Fernandes’s findings also point at the Marxists for unleashing a reign of terror.

Naidu ridiculed the Marxist claim that the recent clashes were due to land reforms. “In West Bengal, land reforms were carried out way back in the 1970s. How come there is a fallout now, after three decades,” he asked.Earlier, Mamata said the Centre has a strategy to deal with the situation in West Bengal.

Banerjee, however, refused to disclose the strategy.

When a reporter asked Banerjee whether she was still insisting that the Centre should dismiss the Jyoti Basu Government despite the fact that the NDA Government at the Centre does not have the majority in the Rajya Sabha and, therefore, may not be able get the ordinance for this purpose approved by Parliament, she said there are ways other than the Article 356 to deal with the situation in West Bangal.

“The Centre has a strategy, but I cannot disclose everything”, she said.In reply to another-question, she said an NDA meeting might be held at New Delhi on September 23.

When asked whether the meeting would discuss the West Bengal problem, she said ”I do not know.”

When a reporter asked whether political violence in West Bengal would be suspended during the coming Puja festival, Banerjee simply said traditionally there is no violence during the Puja days.

She said “state-terrorism should be stopped and we should fight the electoral battle politically.” As political leaders “all of us accuse one another, but never use the abusive language and personal character assassination as Jyoti Basu has been doing", she said.

She challenged the West Bengal Chief Minister to fight a political battle in a democratic way for next year’s scheduled assembly elections.

“I challenge him, not to capture villages, not to use police force and allow free and fair elections, and then see the verdict of the people,” Banerjee said.

Basu’s jittery: Advani
HYDERABAD: Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu’s outburst against Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee as “intemperate and reflective of panic”, Union Home Minister L K Advani today asked the Marxist government to put an end to political violence in the state. “I am disturbed that he should use such intemperate language directed at my colleague (Mamata Banerjee). This is a manifestation of panic”, he said.