Rift over Nandigram widens in Left in W Bengal

The rumblings in the Left Front in West Bengal over the Nandigram police firing refuse to die down as the CPI has now blamed big brother CPI-M and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of keeping the partners in the dark on the issue.

In a hard hitting article in CPI publication New Age, party general secretary A B Bardhan said the 'organised and brutal police assault' on villagers was unprecedented, unbelievable, shocking and traumatic, forcing many to think that time had come to break up the Left Front.

He accused the CPI(M) state leadership of refusing to heed to frequent warnings given by alliance partners about the tensions that were building up in Nandigram and pleas for greater transparency and need for taking Front partners into confidence.

"But unfortunately all such pleadings by other allies and partners of the Left Front went unheeded by the biggest partner, the CPI-M, especially its leadership. The chief minister and some of his colleagues felt that they could carry through everything without the need for any consultation with or help from other partners of the front," he said.

Asserting that the police firing was carried out without the knowledge and consent of the leading section within the Front and without any consultation with partners, he wrote 'they remained in the dark about whatever was happening or was to happen'.

"The initial feeling of anguish and disbelief gave way to deep indignation. Partners within the Left Front itself were taken aback at what happened," he said noting that the firing carried out by a Left Front government 'rudely shocked' even friends and supporters.