The CPI(M) on Tuesday accused Trinamool Congress of submitting a "false" list of its workers allegedly killed by Left activists in West Bengal to the Prime Minister, claiming that it included names of a prominent Maoist, a CPI(M) leader and a two-and-a-half year old boy.
"They (TC) seem to have drawn a lesson from the BJP which, after the Babri Masjid demolition, had claimed a large number of 'kar sevaks' had been killed. Many of them were later found to be alive," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters in New Delhi.
Noting that a TC delegation led by its chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had submitted a list of 83 of their activists allegedly killed by the CPI(M) to the Prime Minister, he said nine of them had been identified.
While one Asit Sarkar was a known Maoist, another, Yasin Ali Paik, was "actually a child of two and a half years" who died of chronic illness, he said.
The name of CPI(M) activist Shankar Biswas, whose condolence meeting was attended by prominent Marxist leaders, figured in the TC list. One Mohd Alam and another Avijit Saha were allegedly killed by TC activists, he claimed.
"We are further investigating the false list submitted by Mamata. We think there are more such cases. All this canard (about CPI(M) attacking TC) is based on fabrication only to justify the patronage given by TC to Maoists and attacks they are mounting on us," Yechury said.
"We once again ask the Prime Minister how he can go on living with this contradiction" in which he calls Maoists' threat the gravest challenge to internal security while his cabinet colleagues "patronise" them, the Marxist leader said. "His answer is yet to come. I hope it will," he said.
Referring to the massive bills run up by Minister of State and TC leader Sultan Ahmed for staying in Ashok Hotel instead of a government accommodation, he said the MoS had declared a total asset of Rs 24 lakh whereas his bill at the five-star hotel was Rs 37 lakh.
"As TC has asked Ahmed to pay the bill out of his own pocket, we wonder how he is going to do that and how the bill is finally settled. That will show the degree of their political morality," Yechury said.
On Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's announcement about unilateral cuts in emission, he said this was a voluntary act of India which "cannot be subject to monitoring or scrutiny or questioned by any other country or agency."
He said the government had corrected Ramesh's statement in Rajya Sabha that the UN would be informed about the emission cuts. Earlier, Ramesh had said it would be put up before the UN "for consideration", which Yechury said, had been changed to "for information" after he objected. PTI
