Taking the side of beleaguered Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal, senior party leader and Transport minister Madan Mitra today said he did not think Mondal had committed a serious crime.
"Anubrata, Birbhum district chief, had made the comments in the wake of the terror let loose by CPI(M) in the countryside. Still he himself later clarified it was a slip of tongue. So is it all that important to make a mountain of the molehill from the issue!" Mitra said here.
"Above all I do not think he has committed a serious crime. Didn't the CPI(M) leaders use more aggressive terms. What about our supporters coming under attack here and there!" Mitra, who was on way to north Bengal, said at the TMC party office here.
Pointing out he knew Mondal for long, Mitra asserted, "I will not and cannot abandon him as a party colleague.
"He had been able to make CPI(M) comprehend what people want to say. The Marxists were afflicted with ENT problem and couldn't hear the voices of masses, they could hear only their own voices. Mondal, who spoke extempore at public meeting talked in people's language," Mitra added.
Mondal had on July 17 at a meeting in Kasba village under Bolpur sub-division allegedly urged partymen to attack the police with bombs and to burn the houses of independent candidates.
The State Election Commission later sought a report from the Birbhum district magistrate and SP on the controversial comments.
Mondal during a press-meet in Bolpur at the party office on July 18 said, "I did not intend to ask partymen to hurl bombs on the police. It was a slip of the tongue."
He also denied involvement of his party in the kidnap and setting ablaze the house of an Independent candidate in the sub-division on that day.
Mondal was not seen on the dias with party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her campaign meetings in the district yesterday.
