The CPI (M) in West Bengal went into damage control mode on Friday over its minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah’s controversial remark about the Marwaris in the state and offered apologies to allay the community’s anger.The CPI (M) state committee, after a meeting attended by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, party patriarch Jyoti Basu and state secretary Biman Bose among others, issued an official statement in Bengali as well as Hindi, dissociating itself from Mollah’s comment. The statement, by Biman Bose, read: “The state committee does not agree with the comment (made by Mollah) and if any community has been hurt, we are sorry.” It further added: “The party’s state leaders shall discuss the matter with the minister.” Mollah’s statement, on the eve of International Mother Language Day on Wednesday that “Marwaris use money to get their work done”, not only met with sharp protests by the Marwaris in the CPI(M) but the community members outside also, with one of the groups even burnt Mollah's effigy at MG Road. To make matters worse, the Land and Land Reforms Minister even used a pejorative term for Marwaris. The comments, reported exclusively by The Indian Express on Thursday, had drawn sharp protests even from faraway Rajasthan and its Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia.Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress legislator Dinesh Bajaj met the Chief Minister at Writers’ Buildings to protest Mollah’s comments. Bajaj, a member of the Marwari community, told reporters after the meeting that the Chief Minister had expressed regrets and urged all members of the community not to take cognizance of “such irresponsible statement” and to continue to be partners in the state's progress.When contacted, Mollah — who was in Malda away from the storm he had sparked — said he had uttered the comment on the spur of the moment, and that he was sorry if he had hurt feelings of any community. “If any community has been hurt by my comment, I am sorry,”he said.Sources in the party said that powerful CPI (M) leaders like Sarala Maheshwari had called on the state leadership, including former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, to register their protest, following which the matter was raised at the Friday’s meeting of the CPI(M) state secretariat, and it was decided to issue a formal statement to contain the damage.
