'CPI-M replacing Lal Salaam with Salim Salaam': BJP

New Delhi, Jan 8 (UNI) The BJP today poked fun at the CPI-M for ''stooping'' to 'Salim Salaam' from its traditional 'Lal Salaam' and said Marxists had declared ''a war'' to crush the peasantry in Nandigram.

Asked for his reaction about the protests against the authorities in Nandigram SEZ, BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said Left Parties had subjected the farmers of West Bengal to a similar prescription ''they were vehemently opposing at the Centre.'' He said nobody grudges the state government in welcoming investments from the Indonesian industrial group Salim but the process ''should not hurt the farmers. The BJP was very clear that SEZs were needed for boosting exports.'' But the farmers ''should be adequately compensated and even given a portion in the developed portions of the SEZ to ensure that the livelihood of their future generations was safe. The SEZs should come up in waste and barren lands so that agriculture production would not be adversely affected by the industrial growth,'' he added.

UNI