Buddha slams Mamata for 'inviting' Obama to Bengal

In a veiled attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for "encouraging imperialism", Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday said it was unprecedented that the state government was eager to invite a United States president next year.

He made the reference to the state government's desire, expressed during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit in Kolkata in May last, to invite Barack Obama to attend 'Yuva Utsav' on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in January, 2013.

Addressing a Left Front gathering at the end of a four-km 'Anti-imperialism and Capitalism' procession in Kolkata, the former chief minister said "it has to be perceived what is going to happen in this state in the backdrop of stepped-up US aggression in political and economic fields."

Bhattacharjee said "it is unprecedented since independence that any US secretary of state ever visited a chief minister at Writers' Buildings."

Stating that no political party or ruling party had ever invited a US president to visit the state, he exhorted the Left parties to unitedly stop US "aggressive postures" after its keenness to enter India's multi-brand retail business, besides insurance, banking and pension sectors.

The procession was organised to mark the menace of Hitler's aggressive war policy and Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.

 Earlier, Leader of the Opposition Suryakanta Mishra said "it is amazing that our chief minister is vehemently opposing FDI entry in retail business, but she has no hesitation to favour American infiltration in education and health sectors."