NEW DELHI, August 27 His comrades are now attacking West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for not being a Good Communist. Reason: he’s talking to the Salim group of companies in Indonesia, known for its links with former President Suharto—in whose regime thousands were murdered—for setting up an industrial park in Kolkata.

The comrades obviously don’t want facts to confuse them. For, what they ignore to see is that China, where several CPM delegations are making ‘‘study trips,’’ has opened its doors to Salim group—and rolled out the red carpet. Today, the Salim Group is building a ‘‘five-star world plaza” in Shanghai, It’s also building hotels, developing property and constructing model dairy farms in China.

Not just that, Salim owns a part of COSCO, a company where every director on the board is a Communist party functionary. If the Suharto-tainted Salim group is good enough for the Chinese, it is surely good enough for our Indian comrades. In China’s case, the fact that Suharto’s gangs killed ethnic Chinese should have made matters worse than for our Indian friends.

In September 2003, Indonesia’s Salim group acquired a 45 percent stake in China’s Cosco Property Group, at a price of $500 million. Cosco is a large conglomerate with international shipping as its core business.

Cosco Property is the biggest shareholder in Cosco Development Company. This gave the Salim group an entry into Shanghai’s booming real estate business, where China is more open to FDI than India. Soon, the Cosco Salim Group Co Ltd. ranked fourth among the real estate companies in Shanghai.

It was involved in large projects in Shanghai such as Cosco Liangwan City and the Asian Forum Centre.

The Cosco Salim Property Group was part of the group that built hotels such as Novotel Atlantis in Shanghai and Sofitel Boao in Hainan. Currently, its Shanghai branch, the Shanghai Cosco Salim Group Co Ltd. is involved in building a five-star world trade plaza with twin towers of 100 m each in Shanghai.

Their Northern Bund Development project along the banks of the river Huangpu will include an international passenger traffic centre for berthing huge liners, an international trade zone for Taiwanese investors in an area of 37,000 sq.m. and a 200 meter high sky-scraping cogwheel for a panaromic view. The project, that will have trading, financial and leisure zones, is seen as a major development project in the region.

If you still think that memories of Suharto’s gangs murdering perhaps a million communists of Chinese origin keeps the Chinese communists away from the Salim group, you need only look at the board of directors of Cosco: Zhang Fusheng, Secretary of Party Committee and Executive Vice President; Wang Futian, Executive Vice-President and Party Committee Member; Chen Hongsheng, Executive Vice President and Party Committee Member; Ma Zehua, Executive Vice President and Party Committee Member; Ma Guichuan, Party Committee Member and Chairman of the Union, Li Yunpeng, Party Committee Member and Director of Party Disciplinary Inspection Office and Sun Yueying, Chief Financial Officer and Party Committee Member.

As a project investment company the Salim Group is reported to have invested US$1.2 billion in China. The latest project in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia is in Hohhot where along with the China Mengniu Dairy Industry Group Company Ltd. it is going to set up a model dairy farm.