High drama ensued at the plush Calcutta Club today when Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee barged in and gave a tongue-lashing to the top officials of the state home department and the police who were having lunch with the three-member Central team there.

“Yes, I saw them having a gala spread at the Calcutta Club with the state home secretary and the police brass. I told them you are here to see violence... why are you having lunch with people who are behind it and the murders. The DGP and the police brass who are behind the violence in Bengal were present there,” said Kalyan Banerjee, Trinamool Congress MP from Serampore in Hooghly.

The Central team today held meetings at the Writers’ Buildings with the top state and police officials after which they proceeded to Calcutta Club around 1.30 pm for lunch.

According to sources, the MP, known for his outbursts, reached the club at around 2.15 pm. He walked straight to the table where the three-member Central team led by D S R Choudhury, additional director (Naxal management) in the Union home ministry, was having lunch with state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen, state DGP Bhupinder Singh and Surojit Purakayastha, IG (Law and Order).

The MP started shouting at the Central team members and others. “You are here to assess the law and order situation, see the violence and murders. Why are you sitting and having dinner with khalnayaks (villians) and murderers. These people are behind the violence and the murders,” the MP was heard shouting and pointing to the state police brass.

The shocked Central team members, along with state administrative heads, failed to react, according to eye-witnesses, even as waiters and others guests in the club looked on.

The MP also expressed his displeasure that the state information and cultural affairs department had sent a letter to the Trinamool Congress in the morning informing that memorandums by political parties could be submitted to the visiting team at the Writers’ Buildings, where it will be available in the afternoon to meet political delegations.

However, later, the Central team members spoke to the MP and asked him to meet them around 8 am tomorrow at their guest house and submit a memorandum.

“Who is state government to tell us when and how to meet the Central delegation. I told them that in the club. I said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is killing people throughout the state and it is our policy not to visit the Writers’ Buildings, which is the headquarters of his administration. I asked the Central team members to give us time to meet them and submit a memorandum. They said we can meet them around 8.30 am tomorrow at the guest house they are staying in,” Banerjee added.

“Why should I be repentant? I fail to understand why the Central team is hobnobbing with the state administration...with the very people who are orchestrating the violence,” said Banerjee, who had earlier kicked off a controversy with his derogatory remarks against the chief minister.

State DGP Bhupinder Singh refused to comment.

The state Congress, meanwhile, has decided not to meet the delegation and instead send a team to meet Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Delhi with a “fact-sheet” on Bengal. The state Congress leaders were unhappy over the manner in which the state government sent letters designating time and place of meeting with the central team.

Pradip Bhattacharjee, working president of the WBPCC, said: “The state government cannot tell us how and when to meet the Central team through a faxed letter.”

Trinamool leaders must ‘brush up’ their English:
Yechury_New Delhi:Taking a dig at the Trinamool Congress leadership over sending of a Central team to West Bengal, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said they needed to “brush up” their English as they found no difference between the words “assist” and “assess”.

While Trinamool leaders were saying the team had gone to “assess” the law and order situation as “a prelude to their designs” for imposition of President’s Rule, Home Minister P Chidambaram made it clear that the team has gone to “assist the state government”, Yechury said. “They need to brush up their English. The Home Minister’s clarifications are at complete variance with what was being sought by the Trinamool,” the CPM leader said.

He alleged the Trinamool’s “political objective” was to create violence and mayhem and use it as a pretext to get Central rule imposed and then hold the Assembly polls, slated in 2011. “This gameplan has now been completely punctured”. The Trinamool has been demanding President’s Rule in West Bengal alleging that law and order has collapsed in the state.

Yechury said Chidambaram has made it clear in Parliament that the Centre had adopted a “non-confrontation” approach in sending the team, which had gone to hold consultations with state officials.