Yechury dismisses Mamata charge against Marxists

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury rubbished Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's charge that Maoists and Marxists were two sides of the same coin and said she had no knowledge of communist movements in the country.

"Somebody who is ignorant of the history of the mainstream Marxists and the ultra left like Naxalites in late 1960s and the present Maoists can make such remarks," the party politburo member told media-persons in Kolkata.

The Naxalites broke away from CPI-M in 1967 and formed their party CPI-ML in 1969. The Maoists were the present nomenclature of Naxalites, he pointed out. CPI-M was the principal target of Naxalites and the hostility "towards us is continuing", he said.

To a question on Banerjee's demand for dismissal of Left Front government in West Bengal, he said "there is nothing new in the demand. It has been one constant element of her politics".