Mamata draws up programme to combat rise of BJP-RSS

Directing the party to launch an all-out political attack on the BJP-RSS, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday drew up a three-pronged programme to combat the rise of the right wing Hindutva forces in the state.

Banerjee, also the West Bengal Chief Minister, asked the party MPs to go all guns booming against the Narendra Modi-led central government during the coming winter session of Parliament on the issue of the rise of communalism in various parts of the country.

Addressing the Trinamool decision-making panel, Banerjee told the leaders to hold small rallies and street corners across the state to apprise the people about the perils of communalism.

"She also told us to go to the masses and educate them about the dangers posed by the BJP-RSS in Bengal, which has a rich heritage of secularism and communal amity," said a Trinamool leader present at the meeting.

A high-powered committee, headed by Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy, and including leaders like Manas Bhunia, Partha Chatterjee, has been constituted to come out with a booklet on the rising communalism, the Singur peasants movement and the achievements of the Mamata Banerjee government during its five and half years rule.

Banerjee's directives followed reports of clashes in some areas of the state during the recent Durga Puja carnival and Muharram.

The state government, however, has said the reports of the clashes were "distorted" by a section of the media. But it admitted that there were "stray incidents" at three places, which were controlled through quick action.

--IANS

ssp/pgh/