Calcutta, Feb. 5: Willing to wound, yet afraid to strike. That is the Forward Bloc’s position on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government and the CPM after the Dinhata flare-up.

After the first instance of Left Front supporters’ death in police firing in 30 years of Left rule, Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh ruled out pulling out of the government because of “political compulsions”. He also restrained himself from criticising the chief minister, who holds the police portfolio, while condemning the firing.

Ghosh spoke to both the chief minister and CPM state secretary Biman Bose today but the fiery rhetoric that he used at recent public meetings in Singur and Nandigram was missing.

“If you can’t restrain your police, I can’t stop my party’s supporters and public from venting their fury,” party leaders quoted him as telling the chief minister.

Ghosh’s tone was remarkable especially against the backdrop of the recent tension between the party and the CPM, in Bengal and Tripura.

In Bengal, the Bloc has de-cided to contest the forthcoming panchayat polls on its own in protest against the “capitalist-wooing policies” of Bhattacharjee and his party and its “one-party rule”.

In Tripura, it has refused to accept the Big Brother’s seat-sharing formula and fielded candidates in 15 seats along with the CPI(ML) Liberation for the Assembly elections this month.

It was mainly because of the Bloc’s opposition, that the Bhattacharjee government put on the backburner a move to allow domestic big companies in retail and farm products business.

The Bloc also formed a “mini-front” with the RSP and CPI to stall the CPM’s efforts to relax the rural land ceiling for industrial projects.

The rift within the front deepened over Bhattacharjee’s aggressive advocacy of investment-friendly policies.

Ghosh, considered soft towards the CPM because of his relations with Jyoti Basu, became hawkish of late after his party’s state council decided to hit the streets against the policies of the government and the CPM.

Today’s agitation was part of the Bloc’s campaign against “the CPM’s tyranny in panchayats”.

Against this backdrop, the Bloc’s restraint after the police firing was described as a fallout of the party’s growing isolation in the front.

The RSP and the CPI had been unhappy over the Bloc’s “unilateral decisions”, like the one to go it alone in the rural polls. The partners feared that the anti-government campaign would help the Opposition consolidate its position.

“We decided not to go overboard and be aggressive today as we are keeping an eye on the moves of the CPM as well as the RSP and the CPI,’’ said a member of the Bloc state secretariat, which is likely to meet on Thursday.

The RSP has condemned the police firing. The party said “police atrocities were detrimental to the professed policy of the government” and demanded an immediate meeting of the front.

Although the party was peeved with the Bloc’s decision to call a bandh tomorrow, it has extended “moral support” to the shutdown.

The CPI felt that the “police firing shouldn’t have taken place” but refused to support the bandh.

However, both the CPI and the RSP felt the police firing was a bad omen for front unity. “If the Bloc decides to continue on the path of confrontation and the CPM refuses to mend fences, it will throw us into a new crisis,” said senior RSP leader Kshiti Goswami.