Bhattacharjee. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

Harinabhi, Aug. 22: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today delved into history and came up with a parallel for the Trinamul Congress’s “attack on communists”: Adolf Hitler.

The chief minister told a party event at Harinabhi on Calcutta’s southern fringes that just as Hitler had “lied” about the communists’ involvement in the fire that destroyed the German parliament in 1933, Mamata Banerjee’s party was blaming the Left for the twin train tragedies this year.

Bhattacharjee said: “Trinamul has been constantly lying to the people that we were involved in the Jnaneswari Express sabotage and the Sainthia train tragedy.”

Referring to Hitler’s slur, the chief minister said it was then “difficult to convince the people that the communists were not behind the fire”.

He urged his “party activists to visit every household and tell the people the identity of those actually involved” in the two train disasters. “People should be told that Maoists and the PCPA (People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities) were behind the twin tragedies.”

The chief minister also ridiculed Trinamul’s claim that a conspiracy had been hatched to kill Mamata on her way back from the August 9 Lalgarh rally. “A lorry intruding into her convoy following a brake failure is being interpreted by Trinamul as an attempt by us to kill her. Imagine how dangerous and destructive the Opposition here is,” he said.

The chief minister also criticised the hike in MPs’ salary and dubbed it “shameful”.

“I hang my head in shame. When people across the country are reeling under the impact of the inflation, their representatives are getting such massive salary hikes. But the Congress-led government at the Centre is unfazed. We Leftists can’t accept this,” Bhattacharjee said.