Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram's remarks on the existence of camps of armed cadres in West Bengal are baseless, Mohammad Salim, a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said on Wednesday.
Mr. Chidambaram had made the statement under political compulsion and to divert attention from the controversy over the killing, in an encounter in Andhra Pradesh, of Maoist leader Azad, Mr. Salim told journalists here.
Even though Mr. Chidambaram did not name any party, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had said on several occasions that several camps of armed cadre of the CPI(M) existed in the Maoist-affected Jangal Mahal region, and the joint operations by the security forces were being used by the party as a cover to force an entry into the area.
Mr. Salim said that while the Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh were unable to resist the Maoists, people in the Jangal Mahal region were successful in checking the spread of the Left-wing extremism.
The Congress-led UPA government was trying to shield the Trinamool to hide its links with the Maoists, Mr. Salim said.
He said the CPI(M) is the only party sustaining the movement against the Maoists.
