I’m not here to satisfy Advani, bristles Basu

Asked if his letter would be hard-hitting this time, the octogenarian chief minister said: “You will get a copy. You will find the difference.”

According to sources, in his letter, Basu has challenged the constitutional propriety of Union Defence Minister George Fernandes’s recent visit to Midnapore district and his submission of a report on the law and order situation in the state.

Fernandes had neither met district officials nor ministers during his visit, Basu has reportedly pointed out. During his trip, the Defence Minister met only leaders of the Trinamool Congress and some of their supporters. Basu reportedly says in his letter that Fernandes’s findings were “biased” and “pre-designed”.

According to the same sources, Advani’s letter, following Fernandes’s visit, contained “inflated number of incidents” in some of the districts. In his letter, Advani had asked the state government to take firm steps to check the violence in the state and “restore” the people’s confidence in its effectiveness and neutrality.

Incidentally, in a damage-control exercise, Basu sent a letter today to the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission following allegations that CPI(M) workers in Bankura and Hooghly districts had threatened its monks in Kamarpukur and Joyrambati recently.

Following a political clash recently in these areas, a group of Trinamool Congress members had taken shelter in Matrisadan in Joyrambati and were given prasad. When this had become a controversy, the mission had issued a release saying: “People who come here are fed prasad irrespective of their caste, creed or religion, and whatever their political affiliations….”

However, soon after the incident, the swamis managing these centres began receiving threats. Alarmed, the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission general secretary, Swami Smaranananda, issued an appeal to the state and the Centre to see that “no harm is done to these holy places”.

Deputy Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya told the media here this evening that the state government has assured the mission that steps are being taken to ensure that these disturbances do not occur again. He added that Basu had written a letter to the mission in this regard.

Kamarpukur and Joyrambati are the birth places of Ramakrishna and his consort Sarada Debi, and people from home and abroad visit these places as pilgrimage. State Health Minister P. Dey admitted that the number of visitors had fallen following the reports, but added: “This was probably because of the propaganda launched by a section of the press and the political parties in the state.”

Meanwhile, talking to reporters, the Chief Minister charged the BJP-led NDA Government with abetting a “conspiracy” to impose President’s Rule in the state. “The Trinamool Congress-BJP raised the demand for promulgation of Article 356 knowing that they cannot come to power through elections,” he claimed.

In an interview to a Malayalam TV channel, which was printed by CPI(M) mouthpiece Ganashakti today, Basu also stated that it was “totally impossible” to impose President’s Rule in the state. He threatened that if Central rule was still imposed, his party would counter it and “we have taken all preparations for that”.