Charging two central ministers belonging to Trinamool Congress with "inciting violence" in Lalgarh, the Communist Party of India-Marxist asked the Centre to explain why they were allowed to visit the place in West Bengal violating Home Ministry directives against such trips.
"At a time when joint operations to contain Maoist violence is going on, they visited the area on Tuesday, incited violence and provoked confrontation with security forces, thereby giving sustenance to Maoist violence and endangering the unity and integrity of the country," CPM leader Sitaram Yechury told media-persons in New Delhi. His party colleague Basudeb Acharia claimed the two Ministers, Mukul Roy and Shishir Adhikari, addressed a public meeting "violating" Section 144 of the CrPC and "spoke against the presence of central forces in the area and the joint operations carried by them and the state police." Maintaining that the Cabinet Committee on Security had decided to send central forces to Lalgarh, he asked "how can Ministers speak against a decision of the Cabinet? Isn't it the collective responsibility of the Ministers to go by these decisions." Noting that the Home Ministry had earlier directed that no central minister should visit Lalgarh when anti-Maoist operations were on, Acharia and Yechury demanded that the Centre should clarify why the two Ministers were allowed to visit the area and take "necessary action".
Yechury said the "modus operandi" was that Trinamool leaders would hold meetings and after they leave the place, violence would erupt. "This has been the practice earlier too. Like before, women and children were used as human shields to mount attacks on the police and security forces," he said.
Drawing a parallel, Yechury said eminent physician Binayak Sen remained imprisoned for three years for allegedly aiding and abetting the Maoists and was let off only after the Supreme Court granted him bail. "In contrast, Roy and Adhikari directly incited violence and thereby provided sustenance to the Maoists in Lalgarh. The law of the land cannot have different yardsticks," the CPM Politburo member said. He said Maoist leaders themselves had claimed that the Trinamool Congress was not helping them in Lalgarh even though they had helped the party in Nandigram earlier.
"Does this trip by the two Ministers indicate their support to Maoists," he asked and demanded clarification from the government. Observing that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself acknowledged Maoist threat as the gravest challenge to internal security, Yechury said "if this is the assessment of the PM and the government, how can two members of his own Cabinet go and do exactly the opposite. This is not permissible at all."
