For one, State Chief Minister Jyoti Basu did not revert to his earlier reference to the Centre as `The Government of barbarians'. He also avoided his usual frontal attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition which have marked his public addresses after the coalition came to power.

Though he came to speak after other LF leaders had already set the blame-the-Centre tone in the meeting, Basu avoided his usual rhetoric.

He said one need not read too much into his recent meeting with Vajpayee, as the local media did, and added the BJP leaders recently complained to him about his using the term `barbarians' against the BJP-led coalition.

Basu told the gathering, who came from Burdwan, Hoogly and Howrah to protest the Centre's industrial policy, that the``term was not meant (sic) against any individual but used to describe activities like the Babri Mosque demolition.''

However, he claimed to have told the BJP leaders that he ``did not have any other term than `barbarians' to describe people who indulged in such activities'' adding he would use it again.

The rally also proved how much the LF, particularly the CPI (M), is preoccupied with charges levelled against them by the BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister.

Basu told the gathering that during his short meeting last week, he told the Prime Minister how the concerned Union ministries have ``messed up the industrial scene here and contributed to the State's industrial sickness.''

He claimed the Prime Minister had assured him that he had planned to set up a committee to look into why the six public sector undertakings are in the red.

The Congress was not spared for introducing ``IMF- and World Bank-sponsored economic reforms,'' which had ``pushed the nation to the brink of economicdisaster.''

Basu said the BJP-led coalition was merely following the Congress prescription, adding, ``At least on the economy, I do no see any difference between the BJP and the Congress, though the latter is not a communal party.''