CPI(M) MP Mohd Salim said “party leaders and trade union leaders will comment”.

While the CPI(M) top brass maintained a studied silence, its allies CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc attacked Bhattacharjee. “What he said is one-sided. Had trade unions been an impediment in industrialisation, no industry would have come up in Japan and Europe where trade unions are strong. Strikes are the last resort of workers to register their protest against repressive measures of the management and to resist violation of labour laws,” said CPI leader and AITUC general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta.

Similar views were expressed by RSP’s Abani Roy and Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas. “He became the CM because he is in the party. His party should ask him why he said this,” said Roy.

Biswas questioned the venue Bhattacharjee chose to air his views. “If he has to say anything against the form of struggle used by the working class, he can comment inside the party or at a trade union forum. I don’t know why he chose the Chamber of Commerce,” he said.