People's Democracy

Left MPs Resent Ministers� Utterances

Below we reproduce the text of the letter some member of parliament belonging to the Left parties sent to the prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh on June 21, 2009.

WE are writing to you to convey our apprehensions in connection with the ongoing joint operations by the central security forces and the security forces of the government of West Bengal in Lalgarh and other areas of West Midnapore against the Maoist violence.

We have learnt through media reports that some members of the union council of ministers are proceeding to visit the affected areas and are making public comments which are adversely complicating the operations against the Maoists.

You had, yourself, drawn the attention of the country by stating that the Maoist activities constitute one of the gravest threats to India's internal security. In that spirit, the central security forces have been dispatched at the request of the state government for launching these joint operations.

In this situation, we, members of parliament belonging to the Left parties, seek your personal intervention to ensure that the joint operations against the Maoists are not adversely complicated by the utterances and actions of some members of the union council of ministers as reported by the media.

The signatories to the letter included Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat, Mohd Amin, Basudev Acharia, Shyamal Chakraborty, P Karunakaran, A Vijayaraghavan, P Madhu, T K Rangarajan, Bajuban Riyan, Khagen Das and Tapan Sen from the CPI(M); D Raja from the CPI; Abani Roy from the RSP and Barun Mukherjee and Narahari Mahato from the Forward Bloc. A copy of the letter was also forwarded to the home minister P Chidambaram.