Date:14/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/14/stories/2007111461441600.htm

National

Dasmunsi’s statement shocking, says CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

“He had opposed the request for CRPF”

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday slammed Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.R. Dasmunsi for terming the events in Nandigram “CPI(M)-led State-sponsored massacre.”

The CPI(M) said Mr. Dasmunsi’s statement was “condemnable and shocking.”

“Abetment”

In a joint statement here, Sitaram Yechury and Basudeb Acharya, who lead the CPI(M) in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, said that at every stage in the past 11 months since the “armed hoodlums” backed by the Trinamool Congress took over Nandigram, Mr. Dasmunsi “has been aiding and abetting these forces.”

They said Mr. Dasmunsi had condemned police intervention to restore communication facilities in Nandigram in March. He had also opposed the State government’s request earlier this month for CRPF deployment in the troubled area.

“He must, therefore, be accountable for the delay in sending the CRPF to Nandigram which would have helped in tackling the situation earlier. It is the height of hypocrisy for Mr. Dasmunsi to now complain that the CRPF is being prevented from moving into Nandigram,” the CPI(M) leaders said.

Claiming that as Union Minister Mr. Dasmunsi was well aware of the role of armed Maoist squads in Nandigram, they said, “By the stance he adopted throughout, he has only aided and abetted the nefarious activities of such squads whose ultimate aim was to destabilise the Left Front government.”