Accusing Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee of running a “parallel government' in West Bengal, senior Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta said here on Saturday that India's federalism was “at stake due to such an unprecedented situation.”
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a State-level rally of the All India Trade Union Congress, Mr. Dasgupta said the Centre could “dismiss” the State government if the former felt that the latter had failed. “India is a federal state. If the Centre thinks that the State government is a failure, let it be dismissed. Let Ms. Banerjee also demand the same,” he said.
On the deaths at Netai near Lalgarh on January 7 in a firing incident, Mr. Dasgupta said the State government and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), whose armed cadres were alleged to have fired on villagers, were not the same.
He said the rise of the Trinamool Congress in the State was a consequence of mistakes committed by Communists as they “failed to take lessons from the fall of the Soviet Union and rectify themselves.”
“Had we not committed those mistakes, had we not shown arrogance, and if we had maintained friendly relationship with other political parties, the situation would not have been as bad as it is today. We must admit our weaknesses and undertake a holistic assessment of the Leftist movement,” Mr. Dasgupta said.
Pointing out that the gross under-development of rural India paved the way for entry and the rise of the Maoists, he said that even West Bengal was lagging behind in development in several areas and that had allowed the left-wing extremists to gain a foothold in the State.
