After home minister P. Chidambaram’s letter to West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asking the state government to disarm CPI(M) cadres left the state chief minister visibly perturbed, the home minister on Thursday wrote two more letters to Mr Bhattacharjee, this time inviting him for talks to Delhi.
In a quick response, Mr Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that he has replied to Mr Chidambaram’s letters.
Sources at the CMO, however, revealed that the chief minister has a packed schedule till January 24, 2011 and hence any such meeting could not be possible in near future.
Although, the chief minister has sent his reply to the Union home minister, he did not share its content with the media. “Mr Bhattacharjee himself drafted the letter vetted by CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and party state secretary Biman Bose since CPI(M) leadership treated Mr Chidambaram’s letters as political ones,” sources familiar to the development revealed.
Mr Bhattacharjee, in a strongly-worded reply to Mr Chidambaram’s letter last week, had taken strong exception to use of the word “harmad” (hired killers) in the communication while asking the Left Front government to disarm CPI(M) cadres. “Your assessment of the situation in the state is surprising and is far from an impartial overview of the situation,” he had said.
While announcing that Mr Chidambaram has written two letters to Mr Bhattacharjee, a home ministry statement on Thursday said, “Both letters have been faxed as well as sent by speed post.”
“The home minister has invited West Bengal chief minister to Delhi at his earliest convenience to discuss the subject and agree upon the way forward,” the statement said.
Earlier in the day, the chief minister’s office received two letters from the Union home minister.