The CPI(M) and the Congress on Tuesday seemed to have opened up a new front on Nandigram, even as a thaw was in the offing on the nuclear issue.
A war of words ensued between the two political formations as senior CPI(M) leaders Sitaram Yechury and Basudeb Acharya on Tuesday lashed out at Union minister and senior Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi for his comments that events in Nandigram was a ?state sponsored massacre?.
Terming the remarks as shocking and condemnable, the two CPI(M) leaders said Dasmunsi is scuttling the peace process in the area. They also accused him of delaying the sending of the CRPF to Nandigram and thus helping the Maoists to spread violence in the area.
??At every stage in the past 11 months since the armed hoodlums backed by the Trinamool Congress took over Nandigram, Dasmunsi has been aiding and abetting these forces. When the police sought to intervene and restore communications on March 14, the Union minister was vocal in condemning the police,?? Yechury and Acharya, said in a statement, continuing their efforts to defend the fresh violence in Nandigram.
??Now when the state government requested for a CRPF battalion, Dasmunsi made a public statement opposing the sending of the CRPF to Nandigram. He must, therefore, be accountable for the delay in sending the CRPF to Nandigram, which would have helped in tackling the situation earlier. It is the height of hypocrisy for Dasmunsi to now complain that the CRPF is being prevented from moving into Nandigram,?? the leaders said.
Both also charged that Dasmunsi was aiding Maoists in the area. ??As a Union minister, Dasmunsi is well aware of the role of the Maoists armed squads in Nandigram. By the stance he has adopted throughout, he has only aided and abetted the nefarious activities of such armed squads whose ultimate aim was to destabilise the Left front government,?? the Left leaders said. ??Normally one could have ignored these rantings of Dasmunsi as coming from a person whose role in Marxist baiting is well known since the days of the semi-fascist terror in West Bengal,?? they added.
