Prime minister Manmohan Singh had made P Chidambaram the sole authority to speak on Maoists.
At a time when Union home minister P Chidambaram and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee have taken a unified stand to combat Maoists, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has picked up a fight with both the leaders.
She has totally overruled a directive by prime minister Manmohan Singh that Chidambaram will be the only person authorised in the Union cabinet to make statements on the Maoist issue.
On Wednesday, Mamata expressed her agony over the anti-Maoist operation in West Bengal and denied the existence of Naxalites in the state.
“There is not a single Maoist in Lalgarh or, to be precise, in West Bengal. The CPI(M) cadres are basically unleashing a reign of terror under the garb of Maoists. The operation by the combined forces is indirectly helping CPI(M) there. We were always against the joint venture [combined forces] operation in West Bengal. We demand that the operation be stopped immediately. Only innocent people are being subjected to torture,” Mamata said.
Defying the PM’s gag order, Mamata said: “We requested the Union home minister to visit different places of West Bengal and review the immense atrocities over Trinamool activists and common people by armed CPI(M) activists. But Chidambaram only visited Lalgarh,” she said.
She was hinting at Chidambaram’s denial to accept Trinamool’s request to visit Burdwan district and review the alleged atrocities over party activists by CPI(M) supporters. Mamata also alleged that some officers of the combined force were helping CPI(M) activists to get foreign arms from “China, Nepal, Bangladesh and even Pakistan”.
“I have got definite proof against some police officers who are helping CPI(M) to store arms in West Midnapore,” Mamata said.
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