UPA comes to CPM’s aid on Nandigram

NEW DELHI: The CPM, which has been facing political isolation over the recent turn of events at Nandigram, received the UPA government’s backing on Friday against the Opposition NDA’s demand for sending a joint parliamentary delegation to the site of violence.

Parliamentary affairs minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, from the Congress, echoed the CPM’s words in terming the situation in West Bengal as a “state law and order” problem. The CPM has held that a visit by a joint parliamentary team to Nandigram would set “a very unhealthy precedent” as the violence at the SEZ site constituted a law and order issue under the state’s jurisdiction.

The minister said there was no Parliamentary precedent from 1952, except in a three cases including the Gujarat riots, where an all-party delegation had been sent to take stock of the situation in the wake of a state law and order problem. Making the same distinction that the CPM made, Mr Dasmunsi specified that only in cases of communal riots, atrocities against SC/STs, women and children had the Parliament sent all-party delegations in the past.

The Union minister added that a joint parliamentary delegation would require all political parties to agree to the suggestion and such consensus did not exist.

The Congress leader, however, specified that the government was ready for a discussion on the issue. The government stand on the joint parliamentary delegation brings out the Congress’ dilemma in taking a clear-cut stand on the Nandigram incident.

The party, which has allowed its West Bengal unit to take the lead in attacking the Marxists in the state, now appears to be taking the CPM’s side in Parliament. In a part justification of this stand, Mr Dasmunsi said that the “communal forces” had to be kept from taking advantage of the situation.

Despite falling back on this time tested blanket explanation, however, the Congress also felt the need to match the NDA’s effort at sending a delegation to the state with one of its own. The party is also simultaneously sending a delegation to Chhattisgarh where over 50 security personnel were killed in a gruesome Naxal attack two days ago. The CPM, for its part, has attempted to turn the tables on the Opposition for their Nandigram attack by bringing up the killing of security personnel in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh.

However, Mr Dasmunsi took his support for the CPM position one step further. He said the NDA, and the BJP in particular, had adopted the “unhealthy practice” of disrupting the Parliament during the finance minister’s reply to the Budget discussion and the passage of the vote on account.

He lashed out at the BJP for insisting that unless government should condemned the Nandigram violence through a joint parliamentary delegation or a government sponsored all-party team it would not allow the Parliament to function. He reminded the BJP that when the NDA was in power the Congress had not blocked the Budget in the wake of the Godhra incident. The Bengal leader, however, in his personal capacity refused to buy the CPM line of Naxalite presence in Nandigram.