Basu salvo at Centre

Calcutta, July 6: The CPM has not taken Manmohan Singh’s “sympathising” with Mamata Banerjee on Nandigram and Singur kindly.

After the party state secretariat meeting this morning, Jyoti Basu said: “Yes, I’ve read the Prime Minister’s comments. Did Mamata tell him that 2,000 of our supporters are still homeless in Nandigram? Neither did she report it nor did he mention it. It’s a matter of shame that our supporters are homeless when we are running the government here.”

Lending voice to the party’s conspiracy theory on the arrest of leader Suhrid Dutta, he added: “The CBI and RAW have been against us for long. They have failed to prove the charges in most cases. We don’t want them to favour us but they should be impartial.”

Acting CPM state secretary Benoy Konar felt the Prime Minister “should have shown restraint” in his reaction. “He found the police firing saddening. But he did not decry the anarchy and violence that turned thousands homeless before and after the firing.”

While being careful not to put the Congress brass in the dock for the “conspiracy”, Konar singled out Union minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, saying he influenced the CBI through junior minister Suresh Pachouri, who supervises the agency. “Priyababu knows we won’t vote for (Bhairon Singh) Shekhawat (the NDA nominee for President) even if we are angry with him.’’

A day after questioning seven persons, including Apurba Banerjee, a West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation deputy manager, and Singur officer-in-charge Priyabrata Bakshi, CBI sleuths are said to be zeroing in on those who guarded the fencing around the Tata Motors plot on the night Tapasi Malik was killed.

Sources said Banerjee was asked about the process of recruiting personnel to protect the plot.