By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal's ruling Left Front Saturday said the all-party peace talks on Nandigram, which collapsed with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee walking out of a meet after her demand to call the March 14 mayhem a genocide was shot down, would continue at all levels – the state, the district and the block.
However, the communists said the March 14 police firing cannot be called "genocide" going by the dictionary meaning of the expression and hence it would not be part of the draft of the talks as demanded by Banerjee.
"The Left Front today decided that the talks would continue not only at the state level (as demanded by Banerjee earlier leading to the May 24 abortive peace meeting) but also at the district and block levels," said Forward Bloc (West Bengal) secretary and veteran Left leader Ashok Ghosh Saturday.
"Left Front chairman Biman Bose would be in charge of the modalities of the same," Ghosh said after a Left Front meeting.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who attended the meeting, wanted Ghosh to take the leading role in the talks as before so that Banerjee could again be persuaded to join the talks.
The all-party talks had collapsed on its first day on May 24 with Banerjee's walkout over the word "genocide". She had demanded that the March 14 police firing that killed 14 be called genocide, but Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders shot down the demand.
Later Front chairman Biman Bose said "the Nandigram incident cannot be called a genocide going by the meaning of the word in any dictionary and if the usage of the word is taken into account no one would demand it to be part of the draft.
"The talks would continue at the state level while simultaneous efforts would be on to hold peace talks at block and district levels. I urge all opposition parties to come forward and find ways of peace," Bose said.
Ghosh, who was authorised by the CPI-M to hold all-party meetings on Nandigram, would make fresh efforts to bring back Banerjee to the discussion table.
At least 21 people have been killed, hundreds injured and several women raped in Nandigram, about 150 km from here, in protests since January against a special economic zone (SEZ) being set up in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim Group.
Thousands of people belonging to both the CPI-M and a body protesting land-acquisition, Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), are living in camps since the flare-up.
All-party talks are aimed at starting a peace process in Nandigram and facilitate the return of terror-stricken villagers to their homes.