Buddha snipes at PC for ?harmad bahini? tag

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has expressed strong objection to Union Home minister P Chidambaram using the word ?harmad bahini? (hired attackers) to imply Communist Party of India (CPI-M) workers.

He also charged the Union minister of using the ?nasty? word without knowing the meaning.

Bhattacharjee, in his reply to Chidambaram?s letter asking the WB CM to disarm CPI-M workers, pointed the accusing finger back on UPA ally Trinamool Congress (TMC) for having contacts with the Maoists.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Home Affairs (MHA) has sought to clarify the delay in Chidambaram?s letter reaching Bhattacharjee by blaming in on the postal department.

Chidambaram had sent the letter to the WB CM on Dec 24, which had reached Bhattacharjee on Dec 27 (Monday) and he had replied the very next day.

In his reply to the Union minister, text of which was released to the media on Wednesday, Bhattacharjee said, ?I strongly object to your using the word ‘harmad’ to mean CPI-M party workers without knowing the meaning of the nasty word coined by Trinamool Congress.?

Continuing to slam TMC, the main Opposition party in the state, the chief minister added, ?Trinamool Congress had earlier a secret contact with Maoists. Now they are openly organising meetings with them.?

On the Maoist unleashed violence in the state, Bhattacharjee said the left-wing extremist are active in 28 police station areas in three districts on the state and are targeting political opponents, looting arms and resorting to extortion.

Stating that the Maoists posed the biggest threat to internal security of the country, he said, ?Central and state forces have achieved major success. Life is gradually coming back to normal and people who were evicted are going back to their homes.?

He added that efforts were on to disarm all armed groups.

The chief minister, however, regretted that the TMC has refused to sit for dialogue with the administration even though other political parties had come forward for talks to stop violence.

Correcting the casualty figures in Chidambaram?s letter, Bhattacharjee said ?69 CPI-M workers were killed in political clashes and 723 injured while 32 Trinamool Congress activists were killed and 601 injured?.

The MHA, in a statement in New Delhi on Wednesday, issued details of the dates of issue and delivery of the letter.

The CPI-M had strongly criticized the leak of contents of the Union minister?s letter to a chief minister much before it landed on the actual hands.

?The home minister’s letter to the chief minister, West Bengal was sent by Speed Post on Dec 22, 2010 under No.ED468157705IN. It reached Kolkata GPO on 24.12.2010 at 6 am. The letter should, therefore, have been delivered on 24.12.2010 which was a working day,? the statement read.

?Alok Sharma, General Manager, India Post vide his letter dated 27.12.2010 has apologised for the delay in the delivery of the article,? it added.

Union minister Chidambaram, in the letter, has reportedly asked Bhattacharjee that the ?Harmad Bahini? be ?immediately disarmed and demobilised?.

“If these armed cadres continue to take upon themselves the duties of maintaining law and order, I wonder what is the role of security forces, especially central para military forces which have been deployed at the request of the state government?” Chidambaram had said in the letter.

The letter was in response to TMC chief and Railway minister Mamata Banerjee?s pressure on the government to act against the CPI-M government in West Bengal.

Banerjee, whose TMC is a vital ally for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre, has alleged before the prime minister that the CPI-M government was misusing the central security forces to act against her party workers.