Mamata to file suit against CPM for defaming her party

The Trinamool Congress will file a defamation suit against the Communist Party of India-Marxist and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for equating the party with the Maoists.

Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee on Monday said in Kolkata that Bhattacharjee should not attack another political party without responsibility or sense of discretion.

Addressing a public rally, Banerjee said the Trinamool would take recourse to law on the issue.

Earlier too, the party had filed defamation suits against the CPI-M, she pointed out, adding that the Trinamool believed in Gandhism and socialism, but that did not mean the party harboured hatred towards supporters of Lenin or Marx.

However, she stated, there was a clear difference between the policy of the Trinamool and that of the Maoists.

She said Member of Parliament Kalyan Banerjee, the head of the Trinamool's legal cell, would take legal action against the CPI-M on this.

Banerjee said violence was at its peak in West Bengal right now.

Police personnel were being victimised and killed by CPI-M cadres or the Maoists. Law and order had touched a low point, she said.

She alleged that Bhattacharjee's provocative statements against the Maoists in West Midnapore had caused the killing of four Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans in Jamboni on Sunday.

She said her party was against atrocities of all kinds be it by the police, the para-military forces or even the Maoists.

Banerjee said she was not in favour of the joint para-military operations in West Midnapore. Ahead of the rally, Banerjee joined party supporters in a procession from College Square in North Kolkata to Esplanade in Central Kolkata, where the rally was held.

Image: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee