Armed groups exist,govt will crack down on them: Buddha

The CM,who also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,said that neither the Home Minister nor the PM mentioned “Harmad”. In a passing mention at a media interaction after his meetings,he admitted that some armed camps do exist,but not in the way the Opposition alleges. Further,he admitted that the Netai killings were “unfortunate” and it should not have happened. Buoyed by the Calcutta High Court’s refusal to order a CBI probe into the killings,he said that the state CID is investigating it and would find out the truth.

The Chief Minister’s statement is significant,given the fact that CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and other central leaders had reportedly taken the view during the Politburo meeting in Kolkata last weekend that armed cadres should be reined in and that the Netai incident has dented the party’s image as it is being projected as the second Nandigram by rivals. Besides the Home Ministry,pressure was also mounting on the state government from the Election Commission.

Bhattacharjee used the meeting to again raise the issue of Trinamool Congress’s nexus with Maoists. He wanted the Home Minister to tell the Trinamool “in no uncertain terms” that they must “disassociate” with the Maoists. “A dangerous situation is emerging in Bengal. The Trinamool is joining hands with the Maoists and their outfits. Earlier,they were secretly maintaining contact with the Maoists,but now they are openly doing it. We have confirmed it from different sources,including those (Maoists leaders) who have been arrested,” the CM said.

He told Chidambaram that the Trinamool,Maoists and their frontal organisations were holding joint public meetings,including two in the recent past,and pointed out that some Trinamool leaders were recently caught escorting Maoists,injured in encounters with joint forces,for medical treatment in Orissa. The overt and covert support extended by the Trinamool to Maoists for political gains is a major concern,he said. To make it known that the Centre was also in the know,a 10-page note on Left-wing extremism that Bhattacharjee handed over to Chidambaram said that the “Central and state intelligence agencies have received inputs that the TMC and Maoist leaders had held secret meetings several times at their sympathisers’ houses to chalk out operational strategy and collect funds”.