CPI(M), Cong call Didi’s ‘sparing’ attempt a ruse

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement to punish policemen responsible for a 1993 firing but “spare” her two predecessors is being seen by critics as an attempt to create a rift between the CPI(M) and the Congress in West Bengal.

Banerjee at a public rally on Friday said FIR would be lodged against the policemen over the July 21 firing, which led to the death of 13 youth Congress activists, as per the recommendations of an inquiry commission set up by her government.

But in an apparent attempt to show political magnanimity, she added in the same breath former chief ministers Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would be “spared.”

But leaders of the CPI (M) and the Congress pointed out Basu, who was CM at the time, died in 2010 and Bhattacharjee was holding information and cultural affairs and urban development portfolios and had no connection with the firing.

By projecting that she had been “magnanimous” , the chief minister was actually trying to shield a key leader of her party, Manish Gupta, claimed leaders of the two parties.

Gupta was the state home secretary at the time of the incident.

Congress legislator and leader of opposition in Bengal assembly Abdul Mannan told HT that her sole purpose was to “finish the Congress and the Left Front.”

“First she tried to do that by giving the BJP a long rope in a bid to divide opposition votes. Now realising that this clandestine backing to the BJP is giving her a bad name, she is resorting to this new drama. What was she doing in the last six years?” questioned Mannan, one of the principal architects of the Left Front- Congress seat sharing agreement in 2016 Bengal assembly polls.