By IANS,
Kolkata : Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee Monday said he was saddened to see the ongoing political violence in West Bengal and recalled that Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu, who passed away a year ago, had always condemned violence.
“Being a common man, I really feel sad. It is really sorrowful to see such kind of violence in the state. This kind of violence is really a matter of concern after seeing so much of adverseness among political parties. I don’t know where we are going,” Chatterjee said while talking to reporters at a programme on Jyoti Basu’s first death anniversary.
The state has witnessed an escalation of political violence since the Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has summoned Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to New Delhi for discussing the state’s law and order, while a six-member Election Commission team arrived in the state Sunday night to review the situation.
“I, like many others, believe what Jyoti Basu used to say that we should all work together for making a strong nation. Jyoti Basu has always spoken against violence,” said Chatterjee, who considered the Marxist patriarch as his mentor.