Contrary to the contention of her colleagues in the United Progressive Alliance government's Home Ministry and the conclusions drawn by the Central Bureau of Investigation, Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee continues to maintain that the derailment of Jnaneswari Express in Paschim Medinipur district which clamed 149 lives on May 28 2010, was the handiwork of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
This despite what the Union Home Ministry said on the disaster and the CBI charge-sheeting activists belonging to the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasdharaner Committee (PSBJC, also known as the People's Committee against Police Atrocities) in connection with the incident.
Ms. Banerjee is, however, adamant. “They (the CPI(M) were responsible for the Jnaneswari Express disaster ahead of the last elections [civic polls of 2010] …Some day, the people will know who actually was responsible”, she told an election rally at Garia, a southern suburb of the city, on Sunday.
“Development in the Railways is moving at a fast pace, but acts of sabotage continue to occur”, Ms. Banerjee said, pointing accusing fingers at the CPI(M).
‘CPI(M) will lose'
Charging the CPI(M) for holding onto power for the past 34 years by “winning elections through intimidation and rigging”, Ms. Banerjee described the on-going Assembly polls as a “war which the CPI(M) knows it will lose”
“That is why it [the CPI(M)] continues to threaten people and hurl foul language at us”, she said, in an obvious reference to the remarks about her recently by a CPI(M) leader from Hooghly district, Anil Basu, who has subsequently issued a public apology for his utterances, following instructions from his party leadership.
“The CPI(M) has a face and a mask to conceal it. While the face is used to being abusive, the mask says that it is not proper to be so,” Ms. Banerjee said in an obvious reference to Mr. Basu's apologies.
Jobs to cadres
Attacking the CPI(M) for failing to provide employment to the people and “giving jobs only to its cadres” she alleged that “for 35 years the government has been inducting cadres in the police force.”
Promising to create jobs for 10 lakh people if elected to power, she said: “People are waiting for the CPI(M) to go; they will then start investing in the State”.
Attacks BJP
Ms. Banerjee continued her tirade against the Bharatiya Janata Party; she has been attacking the party at almost every other election rally over the past days, betraying anxieties of it precipitating a division in the anti-Left vote.
“It is with the help of the CPI(M) that the BJP is trying to come into reckoning in the State. Not a single vote should be cast for it”, she said.
