Reacting to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s recent remarks expressing his disappointment with the situation in Lalgarh, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Sunday that he “was not disappointed” with what was his government was doing to combat Maoist activity there. Instead it was Mr. Chidambaram who had “disappointed the entire nation” with his handling of the Telangana statehood issue.
Speaking at a function to mark the 44th Foundation day of ‘Ganashakti,’ the official organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he said: “I usually refrain from commenting on other Ministers, but the Union Home Minister has said that he is disappointed with the situation in the (south) western part of West Bengal. I would like to tell him that I am not disappointed with the situation as I know what has to be done.”
“The entire nation has been let down by the way he [Mr. Chidambaram] handled the Telangana issue,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.
“First a midnight decision was taken and now they are talking of all-party meetings and consensus. Why was this not done earlier?”
He also said that the announcement on Telangana had repercussions in West Bengal as well, giving an impetus to the demands for statehood of Gorkhaland, Kamtapur and Greater Cooch Behar.
“Why is he [Mr. Chidambaram] only concerned about our State? I would not like to belittle the efforts put in by other States, but the situation exists elsewhere,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said adding that Mr. Chidambaram was critical of the State government merely because of the Congress’ alliance with the principal Opposition party in the State — the Trinamool Congress.
On the Union Home Minister’s remarks that he had received a brief reply to a long letter he had written to Mr. Bhattacharjee, the CM said: “His letter was so long that the reply had to be short.”
Industrialisation
Mr. Bhattacharjee also spoke about the need for industrialisation in the State in order to provide employment to the youth. A lot of hard work had gone into the policy of industrialisation in the State, Mr. Bhattacharjee said, adding that West Bengal was placed among the most industrialised States in the country.
Biman Bose, secretary of the West Bengal State committee of the CPI(M), was also present on the occasion.
Hinting at the projects being inaugurated by Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Mr. Bose said that it was a policy of creation of “instant jobs,” that was not sustainable.
“The State government is committed to the creation of jobs for the unemployed youth but development projects are being obstructed,” he added.
