Brinda backs CM, says reports one-sided

Asked about rape of women in Nandigram, CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat said the West Bengal Government will take “strict and stringent” action against the culprits if there was any veracity in these reports. But she alleged that “there has been one-sided reporting. That is why I am saying we are concerned. CPI(M) cadre were at the receiving end for the last 11 months,” she said in a television interview.

On the pro-Left intellectuals who criticised the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government for the violence in Nandigram and the administration’s silence about it, the Politburo member said she was “puzzled” that they did not have anything to say when hundreds of villagers were not allowed entry there for the past several months. “I respect the works of many of these intellectuals and artists. But I am a little bit puzzled. For 11 months, when 3,500 people were out in the camps, Mamata Banerjee said it was a drama. Did they accept that?” she asked.

Defending Bhattacharjee, Karat said he was the only Chief Minister who had declared that there would be no land acquisition if the people did not want it. “He has the support of the people of Bengal.”