WB panchayat polls: Basu takes on Joshi

Crossing swords with Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi for daring the Left Front in its own bastion, veteran CPI(M) leader and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu today said educated people like Joshi and the RSS are unleashing ‘‘barbarism’’ on the country’s polity.

In Delhi for a two-day CPI(M) Polit Buro meeting, Basu was reacting to Joshi’s statement in Kolkata yesterday where he reportedly described the Left Front government as ‘‘enemy number one of the country’’. Returning Joshi’s compliment, Basu said, ‘‘Well, that is exactly what I am saying. His party (BJP) and the RSS is the biggest enemy of the nation.’’ Meanwhile, the state BJP and ally Trinamool Congress today met Governor Viren J. Shah and sought his intervention to put off the elections.