Before commenting on the state of governance in West Bengal, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram would do well to assess the way the government at the Centre was running, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said at an election rally in Howrah district on Monday.
Senior leaders of the Left parties including Biman Bose, chairman of the State Left Front Committee, dismissed Mr. Chidambaram's comments against Mr. Bhattacharjee as “election oriented utterances” that had been made to appease the Congress' alliance partner, the Trinamool Congress.
“Mr. Chidambaram has said that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is responsible for the disturbances in the State, but can he not see that it is the Trinamool Congress that is responsible for the violence and killings?” Mr. Bhattacharjee told the congregation at Udaynarayanpur.
The Chief Minister said Mr. Chidambaram had failed to deal with the situation in Kashmir and the disturbances that threatened to divide Andhra Pradesh.
“He has come here to suggest a cure. But the doctor needs to treat himself first. We have no need for his treatment here,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.
The Chief Minister vowed that the Maoist situation in West Bengal would be dealt with definitively, but asked Mr. Chidambaram: “What are you doing about it?”
Referring to the rallies addressed by the Home Minister in the Maoist-affected Jangal Mahal region, where Trinamool leaders were also present, Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “Don't you know that those with whom you have gone there are colluding with the Maoists?”
Senior CPI leader and MP Gurudas Dasgupta said Mr. Chidambaram's visit to the region was “the climax of the hypocrisy of the Congress party.”
“The person responsible for the inability to restrain security forces and numerous human rights violations has gone there a few days before the elections to appeal for peace and democracy,” Mr. Dasgupta said, adding that there was a need for the Home Minister to look into a mirror.
Senior CPI(M) leader and member of the party's central committee Mohd. Salim claimed that the reason for Mr. Chidambaram's rallies in the Jangal Mahal region being held with the support of the Trinamool was the Maoists had issued a statement that the CPI(M) and the Congress will not be allowed to campaign in those areas, but no such restriction had been imposed on the Trinamool.
Citing statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau, Mr. Salim said that far from Mr. Chidambaram's claims that the law and order situation in West Bengal was the worst in the country, the figures showed that “Kolkata is among the safest places in India” and that the State had recorded the least number of crimes.
Countering the Home Minister's claims of near bankruptcy of the State, Mr. Bose said there were eight other States “running the show” despite being dependent on loans.
