Mollah

Calcutta, Nov. 19: The CPM state secretariat summoned and censured Abdur Rezzak Mollah today in the presence of the chief minister for criticising the party leadership in public.

Secretariat members said state party secretary Biman Bose asked the land and land reforms minister to keep his mouth shut and rebuked him for firing volleys at the party when it was facing its worst crisis.

Mollah had recently said the people had rejected the CPM and that it didn’t matter when the Assembly elections were held because nothing would change between now and 2011.

The rap to the minister comes at a time the CPM leadership has avoided any admission of the huge erosion in its support — even after the Assembly bypoll rout — and has reined in Left Front partners who have been demanding early polls.

Mollah was called in the presence of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee because the minister’s barbs had been aimed mainly at him.

Officially, the party did not make the censure public. “We do summon ministers to discuss various issues. He was asked to come accordingly,’’ Bose said. But secretariat members said Bose told Mollah: “Your comments are only helping the Opposition and making our workers and supporters more frustrated.”

As Mollah denied the charge, Bhattacharjee intervened to remind him that it was not the first time he had embarrassed the party in public, the sources said. Mollah left the meeting grim-faced, refusing to speak to the media.

Mollah has been censured in the past too for playing the maverick. “His holier-than-thou attitude and love of publicity posing as the party’s conscience reminds us of Subhasda (the late Subhas Chakraborty). He must realise that if the party sinks, he will sink too,’’ a secretariat member said.

CPM leaders, however, admitted that Mollah’s public salvos were symptoms of a growing restiveness within a section of the party that is critical of the government and the CPM leadership.

“The leadership knows the defiance is likely to increase with each poll defeat till 2011, but any strict disciplinary action will risk additional crisis,’’ a CPM veteran said.