CPI(M) asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make a statement in Parliament regarding Centre’s position on Maoists after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee backed Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s stand on Maoist leader Azad’s killing.
“Let the Prime Minister give a statement in Parliament and spell out clearly the correct position of the Centre regarding the Maoists,” CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said, commenting on Mr. Mukherjee’s observation that he found “nothing wrong” in Ms. Banerjee’s statement.
At a rally in Lalagarh on August 9, Ms. Banerjee had said Azad’s killing on July 2 was “not correct” - a statement for which she faced drew flak from the opposition parties.
The senior Congress leader also said there was no reason to suspect that the Railway Minister’s party had links with Maoists.
“If she thinks that the Maoist problem can be negotiated through dialogue and invites the Maoists for talks then that doesn’t mean that she has links with the Maoists. She has got every right to make an independent statement” Mr. Mukherjee had stated at a book release programme at Kolkata Press Club.
Refuting Ms. Banerjee’s charge that the CPI(M) had set up armed camps in the Maoist-dominated areas of West Bengal, Mr. Bose said, “We do not have any such camps alleged by the Opposition. But we do have some camps for the people there who were rendered homeless by the terror unleashed by the Trinamool-Maoist combination.”
