CPI(M) admits cadre camps

Kolkata, 1 Sep: The state CPI(M) leadership today admitted for the first time that the party had set up camps in Jungle Mahal for its cadres but refused to concede that the bases had arms, as alleged by Mamata Banerjee.

State secretariat member Mohammad Salim said the party was “forced” to set up such camps “in the face of Maoist attacks”. He claimed the camps had been set up mainly to give shelter to party activists who had been hounded out of their houses by Maoists.

On the sidelines of a CPI(M) state committee meeting today, Salim said: “After the 2008 Salboni blast triggered by the Maoists and particularly after last year’s Lok Sabha polls, hundreds of our party functionaries have been killed by Maoists in the rebel-dominated areas of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Several of our activists fled their homes for fear of Maoist attacks and took shelter in these camps.”

“However, there are no arms in the camps. Actually, our cadres have been forced to stay in these camps,’’ he added.

The Trinamool Congress chief has repeatedly alleged that the CPI(M) has set up armed camps in Jungle Mahal and is trying to recapture the area with the help of the joint forces.

Salim said that after the joint forces were deployed in the three Maoist-hit districts, the state government realised that mere administrative steps would not ensure peace. “For that, we had to take a political initiative. We set up the camps to give protection to our cadres who had been hounded out of their homes by the Maoists. We have been able to broaden our base and protest (against Maoist atrocities) in these areas,’’ Salim said.

Trinamool grabbed the opportunity to underline how its allegations had been proved right. Party leader Partha Chatterjee said: “The CPI(M)’s admission of the existence of the camps lends credence to our chief’s allegation. In Nandigram, the CPI(M) had done the same thing by recapturing the area with the help of the Eastern Frontier Rifles.’’

Salim chose to play down Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s message to the Bengal government, alerting it about the presence of armed camps of cadres in some parts. “Chidambaram has simply conveyed Trinamool’s allegations to the state government in his own way. One should not read too much into it,” he said.

Salim also said the home minister was bound by the “compulsions of coalition dharma”.

It was reported earlier that CPI(M) cadres had set up a string of listening posts in rebel-dominated areas of West Midnapore. Apart from acting as a deterrent to the Maoists, these camps help the cadres collect information about the movement of the rebels and alert the police.

A CPI(M) leader said today’s meeting underscored the “need to fight back the Maoists”.

Salim said the party had taken a “political initiative” to “get back on its feet” in the three Maoist-hit districts by uniting “like-minded men and hundreds of villagers’’.


The Telegraph