Author: Special Correspondent
Publication: The Hindu
Date: October 17, 2011
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article2544589.ece
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
should clarify whether her earlier utterances that there were no Maoists in
the State were "correct or wrong," said Biman Bose, chairman of
the State's Left Front Committee here on Sunday, a day after the former set
a seven-day deadline for the left-wing extremists in the Jangalmahal region
on her offer of negotiations on the condition that they give up their arms.
"They [the Trinamool Congress] had a
pact [with the Maoists] during their campaign against the Left Front government.
So, all of a sudden they just cannot change their position," Mr. Bose,
who is also State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said
while observing that Ms. Banerjee was "not admitting her earlier mistakes."
It is against such a backdrop that the Chief Minister's remarks about negotiations
and peace talks with the Maoists are "confusing," he said.
"The Trinamool Congress-led government
has repeatedly said that there are no Maoists [in the State]. It had wanted
to ignore the fact that a problem existed in the Jangalmahal area. Now all
of a sudden they [the Trinamool Congress] have started saying that if they
[the Maoists] do not sit for peace talks, if they do not surrender their arms
then we [the government] will see how strong they are.
"This raises the question of whether
the earlier utterances of the Trinamool Congress chief as Chief Minister are
correct or wrong. This should be admitted by the Chief Minister as this is
a democratically-elected government."
He reiterated that the Maoists were a "political
force" which had to be "fought back politically."
