Congress flays comrades' doublespeak on Maoists

NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday ratcheted up its attack on West Bengal's Left Front government, particularly CPM. The higher pitch of the attack was on account of the party's reluctance to implement the ban on CPI (Maoist) in the state, even after the Centre designated the group as a "terrorist organisation" under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Commenting on West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee���s statement that he would implement the ban in his own way, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said that the ���caveat��� introduced by the chief minister was an example of the "doublespeak" of CPM.

"This is an example of CPM's doublespeak. On the one hand, the West Bengal government seeks help of the central government to act against the Maoist but on the other hand it is not ready to take the basic step it should. The West Bengal government should have designated the CPI Maoist as an illegal organisation under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908," Mr Tewari said.

Drawing attention to the inherent danger in Mr Bhattacharjee's "selective" implementation of the central law, the party said that it would lead to constitutional chaos.

"Is the West Bengal government at all serious about fighting the Maoists? Then it should immediately declare CPI-Maoist as an unlawful organisation. If the state governments start implementing central laws selectively, it will lead to constitutional chaos," Mr Tewari said.

Going so far as to virtually accuse the Left of acting against national interests, Congress said that history reveals that the Left parties have never been firm in the face of a challenge to the country or when national interests are involved. "They have always acted in this manner, be it in 1962 during the war with China or 2008 over the India-US nuclear deal," the spokesperson said.