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Basu chides Buddhadeb for keeping allies in dark

By Mrs Gupta, Section News
Posted on Sat Nov 04, 2006 at 12:44:23 AM EST

Jyoti Basu on Friday rebuked Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for keeping the allies of the ruling coalition in the state out of the loop while striking deals with various business houses.

Basu also forced Buddhadeb to apologise for his recent remarks against some allies of the Left Front (LF). The CM had sarcastically said some allies were raising doubts over the Tata Motors project only to get media publicity. "You are the chief minister. You should be restrained in your comments," Basu told Buddhadeb.

At the LF meeting, Basu wondered why the chief minister had not called the core committee meeting of his Cabinet to discuss important policy matters with the allies.

"Why aren't you calling the core committee meet- ing? It has become virtually non-existent. I can't under- stand what is happening," an angry Basu said after coalition partners com- plained that the government had shut them out of the de- cision making process. Bud- dhadeb argued that he had convened two core commit- tee meetings, but RSP leader and PWD minister Khiti Goswami pointed out that he had not been invited to even one of them. "See what you have done to the core committee," Basu shot back at Buddhadeb.

The two-hour meeting started with CPM central committee member Binoy Konar criticising the part- ners — particularly the CPI and the RSP — for doubting that the government had en tered into a shady deal with the Tatas on the carmanufacturing project at Singur. "Why are you raising doubts about the government's transparency? Is Nirupam Sen (state industries minister) a Natwar Singh (who allegedly received kickbacks)," he asked.

At this, leaders of the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc yelled at Konar and asked him to apologise. Basu intervened saying, "We must maintain Front's unity. If the Left Front disintegrates, will the CPM survive?"

RSP's Debabrata Banerjee and CPI's Nandagopal Bhattacharjee complained that while Basu's government was transparent, Buddhadeb's was not. The CPM patriarch also told the chief minister not to neglect agriculture. "Do not forget that agriculture is our base. If we don't have agriculture we can't sustain industrialisation," Basu said.

State industries minister Nirupam Sen explained why the government could not immediately reveal specific details of the deal with Tata Motors. “The Tatas are afraid of their rivals. They asked us not to reveal details of the project now. Moreover, the deal is not yet fully complete," he said.

Source- HT, 04/11/06

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