By IANS
New Delhi : A softened West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Tuesday said he should not have made his controversial remarks on the Nandigram violence that villagers allegedly targeted by his party cadres were “paid back in their own coin”.
“I had said the people have been paid back in the same coin. I should not have said it. I want peace now,” Bhattacharya told reporters at a specially convened press conference at Banga Bhawan here.
“What I meant was that our boys were desperate. They waited for 11 months,” he said.
Bhattacharya’s remarks, which came after the two-day Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo meeting, are seen as an attempt to retrieve the image of his and the party-led government in West Bengal, which had been badly hit by the violence in Nandigram.
The West Bengal chief minister had made his controversial remarks after CPI-M cadres resorted to a violent “takeover” of Nandigram land from a rival group fighting land acquisition for industry. The area in East Midnapore district has witnessed several clashes since January between CPI-M supporters and the opposition Trinamool Congress-supported anti-land acquisition group, leaving over 35 people dead.
Bhattacharya also admitted that the violence in Nandigram, which had drawn criticism from the intelligentsia as well as rights groups, was a “political and administrative failure”.
According to the chief minister his priority was to bring back normalcy to the region.
Bhattacharya, widely seen as the moderate face of the communist party, reiterated that the Nandigram violence had not affected the “conducive atmosphere” in the state for investments.
Though he admitted that the Nandigram developments had created “some problems” for his state’s image “inside and outside” the country, he said his government was receiving numerous proposals for new investments from different countries like the US, Singapore, Japan and Dubai.
Responding to a question, he said: “The reaction of the intelligentsia was natural, especially after the police firing (on March 14 when 14 people were killed). No sensitive person can accept that.”
“It’s my duty to explain to the world that it will not be repeated in future,” Bhattacharya said, adding that his government had taken steps to ensure that normalcy returns to the village.
He also admitted that the Nandigram developments had created tensions among the Left Front allies in the state. “We are trying to come to a consensus on the issue. The Left Front has been there for long and we had a long battle of struggle together. It’s not like other alliances. It will be there.”
Asked about the CPI-M-led government’s reported differences with Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, he said: “I have no problem with the governor. I have a very good relation with him. We discuss even literature and exchange books. The reports that we want the governor to be changed are baseless.”
The governor had publicly criticised the Bhattacharya government over the violence.
On Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, who was moved to Rajasthan from Kolkata following protests by a Muslim group last month, he said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee would decide on the return of Nasreen to the West Bengal capital.
Bhattacharya met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday besides Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani. He said he had explained the situation in Nandigram to the prime minister and sought the BJP’s support for the passage of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2007 for the creation of an autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.