The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front from West Bengal on Thursday petitioned to the Centre complaining of violence against Opposition parties in the State and sought immediate measures to restore peace and normality in the State.
“We drew the attention of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to what is going on in the State as it is not congenial for democracy, unity, integrity and harmony of the people of West Bengal, whose democratic rights are being curtailed,” Biman Basu, Chairman of the Left Front Committee, said at a press conference here.
He said a delegation that included representatives of the Front met Dr. Singh here and submitted a 70-page booklet containing a memorandum and summary report of political violence in West Bengal between May 13 and August 15 this year. The Prime Minister, the team members said, assured them that whatever could be done by the Centre would be done.
They said that in the backdrop of recent developments of Left Wing Extremists' that affected areas in the southern part of the State and in the Hills, Dooars, Terai and adjoining areas in North Bengal, “the present state of unrest and anarchy precipitated by widespread terror unleashed on the Left, in particular, has acquired a special dimension. We firmly believe that the Union government cannot afford to be a silent spectator in a situation like this.”
The memorandum said that while the Centre had earlier described Left Wing Extremism as the greatest threat to internal security of the country and that there was remarkable success in confronting it through the coordinated action of the Central and State governments, the new West Bengal government had given a “free hand to regroup and expand their area of operation much beyond what had existed ever before.”
The Committee objected to the way the tripartite agreement on the problems of the Hills has been signed, keeping the Opposition and, “we believe, the PCC in West Bengal” in the dark, further complicating the situation there. They said it could open the Pandora's Box keeping in view the demand of the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha for a separate State of Gorkhaland.
The delegation said violence unleashed against the Left Front leaders and workers had led to the killing of 31 people since the end of Assembly elections. They said that while Maoists and KLO militants were promised to be released as political prisoners, thousands of Left Front activists had been implicated in false cases.
