Trinamool faces flak as UPA beats drum

PC expresses concern over law and order situation

Union home minister P Chidambaram and HRD minister Kapil Sibal flew to Kolkata this afternoon. The visit, organised by the Press Information Bureau, had largely been billed as a pre-Presidential poll exercise by the two senior Congress heavyweights to appease Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

However, the event turned out to be an aggressive campaign for the UPA II government, peppered with doses of criticism of the Trinamool Congress government, praise for the earlier Left Front government and a distinct hint that the financial woes of the state might not be solved overnight but would take more time than anticipated.

The two ministers were in the city as part of a Group of Ministers on Media and to interact with the regional media at the Kolkata Press Club regarding the achievements of UPA II.

Asked to compare the Left and Trinamool vis-a-vis UPA I and UPA II, Chidambaram said, "We do not choose partners. The partners choose us. The Left parties did so in 2004 and the Trinamool Congress chose us in 2009. We are happy about that. But we do not want to make an assessment between the two partners."

Asked if the Union home ministry had any inputs on Maoists regrouping in Junglemahal, Chidambaram said that the threat is there but the Maoists had largely been contained in three district of West Bengal due to the policies of the earlier CPM government and the present Trinamool government. The LWE problem continues in three states but there has been remarkable recovery in West Bengal, Chidambaram added.

However, when asked about the law and order situation in Bengal, Chidambaram replied, "My only concern is the culture of violence. Many of the incidents in Bengal are due to inter-party clashes. Democracy is a place for word for word, argument for argument, and not bullet for bullet. Political parties must abjure violence before we call upon militant and extremist groups to abjure violence."

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