Fernandes comes back from Bengal with horror stories

Fernandes comes back from Bengal with horror stories
AJAY SURI

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 10: The Government today declared that ``all options'' on West Bengal are ``being examined.'' The comment came from Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, moments after Defence Minister George Fernandes handed him the report on law and order situation in the state.

The structure of the Constitution in the state, held Fernandes two days after his whistle-stop tour of the West Bengal, ``is under attack and democracy is about to be killed there.''

The Union Home Ministry is seriously contemplating rushing a team of senior officials to West Bengal (on the line of what it had done in Tamil Nadu when Jayalalitha was the Chief Minister). Another possibility being toyed with, North Block sources disclosed, was to summon top state officials to New Delhi.

What has added to the grimness of the situation, point out officials, is that in the past fortnight alone the Home Ministry has send three advisories to West Bengal, expressing concern over the ``lawlessness'' in the state. Significantly, the third advisory has demanded thorough explanation from the state Government. Last evening, it is learnt, Advani spoke on telephone with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in United States and for about 15 minutes briefed him on the West Bengal scenario.

``The decision on sending a Central team to the state will be taken shortly,'' senior North Block officials told The Indian Express.

But Fernandes made it clear today that with Vajpayee and other senior cabinet colleagues abroad, the final action which would decide the fate of West Bengal could be delayed by a few days. In the same breath, however, he sounded cautious when he held, ``We do not want to have a repeat of Bihar experience when it was put under President's rule.''

``I am really scared about (Trinamool Congress chief) Mamata Banerjee. Her life is in danger in West Bengal,'' the Defence Minister told media-persons. Lashing out at the state Government, he alleged that that the ruling CPI(M), its electoral base eroded in large pars of the state, was resorting to terror tactics of the worst kind, murdering Trinamool supporters and committing rapes on women who refused to support Marxists.

In several areas, said Fernandes, people in large number had fled their homes and were huddled together in camps, but even there their life was not safe.

``We don't know how to apologise to Mamata Banerjee,'' Fernandes remarked, explaining that though she had been claiming about the the large-scale lawlessness in Bengal for a long time, nobody in the Government took her seriously. He added, ``we didn't believe her to the extent we should have. Had we known the real situation earlier, something could have been done to stop it from reaching this pass.''

Fernandes described in detail his experiences, ``the scariest of my life'', in number of places in the state such as Bankura, Garbetta, Midnapur and others which he visited a few days ago. While in one village, he held, a woman who dared to fight `panchayat' elections was raped by four men, another was stripped and paraded and in yet another village was shot dead from a point-blank range in front of hundreds of terrified Trinamool supporters.

In Bankura, said Fernandes, the wrath of CPI(M) had fallen on some 2,000 people, all of whom had now found shelter in Ramarkrishna Mission. ``Mamataand Ajit Panja recently went to the Mission and spoke with them. But no sooner did they leave the building than it shook with a series of explosions.''

Fernandes refuted suggestions that he had gone to West Bengal with preconceived notions. Asked to react to CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet that his visit as politically motivated, Fernandes quipped, ``I have stopped responded to Surjeet for a long time now, for variety of reasons.''

To a query, Fernandes said he had made no recommendation in the report but it did carry his observations and comments. He emphasised, nevertheless, ``the Government will now have to think and decide about the future of the state.''