Author: Express News Service
Publication: ExpressIndia.com
Date: May 11, 2008
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Biman-Bose-calls-intellectuals-kujon/308093/
Criticises state EC for allowing them to visit
Nandigram
On the eve of panchayat polls, CPM state Secretary
Biman Bose issued a veiled threat to intellectuals, including actor Aparna
Sen, calling them "kujon (evil people) and self-appointed observers".
Bose alleged that the State Election Commission
(EC) has made a mistake by allowing a group of intellectuals to visit Nandigram.
A group of intellectuals, including Aparna
Sen, theatre personality Shaonli Mitra, painter Shuvaprasanna were stopped
by policemen on their way to Nandigram and were sent back to Kolkata on Saturday.
Bose said he had written a letter to the EC
asking it not to allow intellectuals to visit Nandigram on Sunday, the poll
day. The letter adds that the West Bengal Panchayat Act has no provision for
such visits. "No rule permits such self-appointed observers to visit
Nandigram during the polls. They may be great personalities in their own field,
but they should confine their activities to their fields only. If they go
to Nandigram there will be trouble and anarchy. They are 'kujon' and all 'sujon'
(good) citizens should stop it," said Bose at a media conference at Alimuddin
Street.
He added: "Now it is so hot there. They
should visit Nandigram during the winter. We will make it a tourist spot by
then. If they want to walk, they can do it anywhere else. The police should
not allow them to enter Nandigram," he said.
"The State Election Commission today
rectified their mistake by stopping them from entering Nandigram. We have
lodged our protest with the Commission and will submit a list of people who
can be allowed to go there," the chairman of the Left Front stated.
Conceding that the Left Front had failed to come up with pre-poll alliances
in certain areas, Bose said the party will work towards post-poll alliances.
"At the gram panchayat level, there has
been no alliance in several places. The phenomenon is less in panchayat samities.
We are trying our best to form alliances. However, after the polls, we will
form alliances among our partners," he added.
Bose said that in North Dinajpur, the Congress
had distributed money to villagers during campaigning, and the people had
resisted the move. In Satengabari, he added that locals had resisted Trinamool
Congress supporters as they tried to snatch ballot papers.
"I have asked our party cadres not to
take law in to their own hands and let police do their duty," Bose said.
