Making trouble is Mamata's religion

Kolkata, Feb 16: Admitting that there was a gap between the state government and the masses on industrialisation, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu today said the ruling Left Front would take the people into confidence about the measures to set up industry, striking a balance with agriculture.

"There was some misunderstanding... people were not properly made to understand the plans. We have taken two-three months to exhort the people what is being done for industrialisation without harming agriculture," he told reporters after attending the CPI(M) State Secretariat meeting.

However, describing Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee as a 'trouble monger' for whipping up fracas and throwing tantrums over any move that the Government proposed to make, Mr Basu said it was in her nature to create unrest.

"I have seen it before many times. Even when the Government was about to get possession of a building for Ramakrishna Mission, she opposed it. To create trouble is her religion and politics," he said.

Though Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had owned responsibility for the 'mistake' committed by Haldia Development Authority (HDA), a Government agency that issued a notice identifying areas for setting up of an SEZ in Nandigram, this was for the first time that a Front leader made a candid admission about administrative and political lapses in getting people fall in line with the Government's overall industrialisation move that entailed unrest and violence in Singur, Nandigram and elsewhere in the state.

With the Trinamool, led opposition doggedly opposing acquisition of farm land for industry, the issue snowballed into an agenda even beyond the state's boundary and the smaller partners of the ruling Left Front also joined the debate, not hiding their displeasure against the CPI(M).

In a recent Front meeting, the Chief Minister assured the aggrieved smaller partners that nothing would be done by keeping them in dark and talks would be held with all, even the opposition for future industrial plans.

UNI