Singing Vande Mataram should be people's choice: Buddha

Jaipur, Aug 31 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said nobody should be compelled to sing Vande Mataram.

Addressing a press conference here at the party office, Mr Bhattacharjee said the century-old patriotic song written by renowned Bengali poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee is a masterpiece but nobody should be compelled to sing it.

He said, ''Ours is a secular democratic country and everybody has the right to exercise their freedom. It shoud be left to the discretion of people.'' When asked how the left government in West Bengal is different from the Congress and BJP-ruled states, he said both the Congress and the BJP are sides of the same coin the two parties represent the interest of rich landlords and businessman.

But the basic difference between the Congress and the BJP is that the latter, apart from the representing the rich, also tries to divide the people on religious lines, the Chief Minister said.

He emphasised that the Marxist government represents the interest of workers and masses at large.

He said the West Bengal government has introduced an allowance of Rs 500 to the workers of factories that have shutdown and alos made a provision for provident fund for the workers of unorgansied sector.

Elaborating on the major factor behind the uninteruppted rule of Left Front in West Bengal, he said the greatest achievement of the government there is implementation of land reforms.

He said, ''In West Bengal, we have a clear policy on land. Nobody can possess more than 12 acres of irrigated land while the limit for non-irrigated land is 17 acres.'' Mr Bhattacharjee said though the Marxist government's industrial policy thrust is on the promotion of small and medium industries, the state will always welcome Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and private investment in a big way ''because we want modern technology.'' But he categorically denied that the state would not allow any foregin investment in retail ''as the Indians need no foreigner to sell their own vegetables and cereals.'' He said there was no differences in the party on this issue.

Reacting to the reported differences regarding allocation of land under the Special Economic Zone, Mr Bhattacharjee said the provision of allocating 35 per cent land for industrial units in SEZ has to be increased to 50 per cent.

UNI PJJ AK MIR RAI1326