West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is trying to bluff people with her opposition to FDI in multi-brand retail, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Monday and questioned the purpose of her meeting with the United States secretary of state and the US ambassador to India.
"A grave conspiracy is going on. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Mamata Banerjee at Writers' Bulding on her way to New Delhi from Bangladesh," Bose said at a Left Front rally in Kolkata.
"She also had a meeting with US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell recently," he said.
"No one knows what transpired at the meetings," said Bose, a CPI-M Politburo member.
"Mamata Banerjee is opposing FDI, but is not saying a word against America (USA)," he claimed.
"She is trying to show that she has hit the streets to protest FDI in multi-brand retail by holding the rally at Jantar Mantar today, but she had not opposed the move by the Centre earlier," Bose pointed out.
Bose claimed that Banerjee chose this day to hold her protest against FDI in multi-brand retail at Jantar Mantar in Delhi just because the Left Front had chosen to hold its protest against the Trinamool Congress government for alleged law and order breakdown in the state on Monday.
"She (Mamata Banerjee) is trying to be more Left than the Leftists," he said.
"She chose the safer climes of Delhi instead of facing the rally and a delegation that had planned to meet the chief minister," he said.
A delegation of Left leaders met state Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee and gave him a memorandum alleging political violence and law and order problems. The memorandum demanded upholding democratic values.
Speaking at the rally, former state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed that the law and order situation in West Bengal had touched its nadir.
"All types of crimes -- from theft to murder and rapes -- are occurring regularly," he alleged.
"This is a government of anti-socials," he charged.
"After we went from the government last year, not a single industry has come up in the state," he said.
"The reason can be ascribed to this government's land policy. Singur has become a graveyard," he said.
"Roads, power units are not coming up because the government won't acquire land. Neither will industry come up because the government won't give land," he pointed out.
