New Delhi, November 10
Stung by West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s strong statement on Nandigram, Left leaders today conveyed their displeasure to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged the Centre to ensure that the Governor does not go public with his criticism of the state government.

CPM and CPI general secretaries Prakash Karat and A.B.Bardhan referred to the issue during their luncheon meeting with the Prime Minister, which was called primarily to discuss their differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal and the coming winter session of Parliament.

Both Prime Minister and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was also present at the meeting, heard out the two Left leaders who protested the Governor’s role. Karat and Bardhan maintained that Governor Gandhi should have conveyed his views to the state government instead of going public with his critcism.

While the PM and Mukherjee were non-committal about the Governor’s role, the Centre did accede to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharrya’s request for Central forces and agreed to send 1,000 additional CRPF personnel to contain the fresh violence which has erupted in Nandigram.

Besides conveying their objections to the Centre, the CPM also hit back publicly at the West Bengal Governor, accusing him of overstepping his brief. The content of the statement makes it clear that this is not the role expected from the office of the Governor under the Constitution, party Politburo said in a statement.

The CPM’s statement comes a day after Gandhi described the recapture of villages in Nandigram by CPM cadres as unlawful and unacceptable, describing the area as a war zone. The Governor also made it clear that no government or society could allow a war zone to exist without immediate and effective action. The CPM said the Governor has been apprised of the reasons behind this abnormal situation.

The Congress response was predictably muted, given that the UPA government is critically dependent on the support of the Left parties.

The Congress distanced itself from the Governor’s remarks and refrained from being overtly critical about the Left Front government’s handling of the situation. “The situation in Nandigram is most unfortunate but law and order is a state subject,” Veerappa Moily, chairman of the AICC media department, said here today. Confident that a “mature leader like Buddhadeb” will act swiftly to contain the violence. As for the Gandhi’s statement, Moily merely said it was for the governor and the state government to sort it out.