Cong-CPM Indira glue arms CM

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, Jan. 3: The Congress and the CPM today stepped up protests against the Mamata Banerjee government on renaming Indira Bhavan, prompting the chief minister to accuse her friend and foe of "joining hands".

More than 50 Congress activists, led by the party's youth wing president Mausam Noor, squatted for over four hours under Indira Gandhi's statue opposite Birla Planetarium to protest the proposed name change.

Quoting Mamata, Congress leader and minister Manas Bhunia had said last week Indira Bhavan's name would be retained even after a research centre on Nazrul Islam was opened there. But the Congress wants an official circular issued to preserve the name.

"We cannot accept the renaming of Indira Bhavan after Nazrul Islam. Let the government set up a Nazrul academy anywhere in the city but Indira Bhavan, which is associated with the memories of our late Prime Minister," said Mausam.

Reacting to the chief minister's assertion that the Congress did not protest when Jyoti Basu stayed at Indira Bhavan and turned it into a party office, Mausam said: "She (Mamata) was the then Youth Congress chief and she could have easily protested."

State Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharya was present in the gathering. Mamata's bete noire Deepa Das Munshi was, however, absent.

In the past five days, Congress workers have demonstrated outside Writers' Buildings, organised a sit-in at the same venue where Mausam protested today and blocked local trains at Basirhat over the renaming controversy.

Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra echoed the Congress while maintaining that setting up a museum and research centre on Nazrul at the Indira Bhavan would dishonour "both the poet and the late Prime Minister".

"Indira Gandhi was not only a Congress leader but also the Prime Minister of the country who was assassinated. So, Indira Bhavan should house memorabilia related to Mrs Gandhi," he added.

The two parties will again hit the streets tomorrow to protest the government's failure to protect paddy growers. The Left has called a rural Bengal bandh tomorrow while the Congress has lined up a sit-in at Metro Channel.