Calcutta, April 25: On a day Rahul Gandhi accused Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government of being “insensitive” in Nandigram, CPM ally Kshiti Goswami added to the Opposition arsenal calling the firing there a joint operation by police and armed CPM groups.

“The CPM’s armed groups were present along with the police that day. Television footage had shown chappal-wearing gunmen with covered faces during and after the firing,” Goswami, the PWD minister in Bhattacharjee’s cabinet, alleged.

Only yesterday, the chief minister had vehemently denied the charge in a TV interview. He said he had asked the police to avoid clashes before sending them to Nandigram and that Writers’ Buildings had not been consulted before the firing on March 14, 2007.

Goswami told reporters: “There is confusion on who ordered the firing. Our political honesty demands that people be told what went wrong that the police in Left-ruled Bengal had to open fire on women and farmers.”

The RSP leader, who has embarrassed the government several times in the past over Singur and Nandigram and even threatened to resign but didn’t, went on to accuse the police of planning the assault with CPM leaders. “It isn’t clear who asked the police to fire as the situation was under the dual control of the police brass and CPM leaders. They were co-ordinating the administrative and political strategies.”

Almost echoing the young Gandhi, Goswami said his party had also called for “sensitivity” when the state was acquiring land in Singur.