Date:05/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/05/stories/2006120503561000.htm

National

Congress indulging in doublespeak: Yechury

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI : The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday charged the Congress with indulging in doublespeak in joining the protest on Singur land acquisition issue in West Bengal, and said the party would take up the challenge politically.

"Their [Congress] doublespeak gets exposed. They say [at the Centre] that the Left parties were preventing modernisation and where it is happening [in West Bengal], they are opposing it," party Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said.

He said the Congress always says no to "mahajot" [grand coalition] in West Bengal but joined hands with the Trinamool Congress. On Monday, he said, BJP president Rajnath Singh joined the leaders of the Trinamool and Congress at a protest sit-in.

Compensation

Mr. Yechury said 945 acres of the 997 acres required for the Tata Motors small car project had been acquired, with farmers lining up to collect compensation, which for the first time also took into account the interests of the sharecroppers.

He said the State Government paid Rs. 8.40 lakh per acre for multi-crop land and some 3,000-odd sharecroppers were also paid compensation. In addition, 1,815 people from whom the land was acquired were undergoing training related to automobile industry. Many women had enrolled themselves for sewing classes while some had joined a catering institute at Kolkata.

The CPI (M) leader said the protests were being organised and cited an instance where a Trinamool supporter joined the protest first and then collected his compensation cheque later.

The Congress said the party believed that the State should take into account the interests of farmers. "We are not for force but through consultations. If the farmers are happy, we have no problem," party spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi said.