But the Chief Minister's party, the CPI(M), has been criticising the Sangh Parivar in party fora for ``trying to arouse ultra-nationalistic sentiments'' over the Kargil situation. This, the party leaders here complain, can have ``dangerous connotations'' for communal amity in the country.

At a recent party function here, West Bengal unit secretary Anil Biswas hit out at the Sangh Parivar for ``exploiting the Kargil conflict for jingoistic purposes''. He quoted passages from the latest issues of Organiser and Pancha Yanya to allege that the Sangh Parivar sought to spread ``communal poison'' over the Kargil battle.

The party is already holding the Vajpayee Government responsible for the large-scale intrusion of Pakistan Army regulars and militants backed by them in the Kargil area. Addressing ameeting of the party's youth wing here last weekend, Basu's deputy and state Home Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharyya even called Defence Minister George Fernandes a ``traitor''. Fernandes should have resigned owning responsibility, he said.

The Marxists were, however, anxious to claim that they were ``no less patriotic than others''. Basu and his comrades insisted there could be no dialogue with Pakistan until the intruders were evicted. ``But patriotism and jingoism are not the same thing,'' Biswas said.

The party leadership was also embarrassed by some remarks made on Sunday by former Army chief General Shankar Roy Choudhury (Retired) whom the Left Front had nominated as an Independent candidate for the July 26 Rajya Sabha polls from the state. Speaking at a function, Roy Choudhury gave a clean chit to Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani, saying they were ``not communal leaders''.

Though supported by both the Left Front and the Congress, Roy Choudhury has good equations with the state BJPleaders too. In fact, the former Army chief will be a star attraction at a meeting of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Smarak Samiti function here Tuesday, in which Advani is to be the main speaker.