Thaindian News

Kolkata, April 24 (IANS) Bowing to a public outcry over some obscene remarks made by a prominent party leader against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the Communist Party of India (CPI-M) Sunday forced him to issue a public apology and barred him from addressing any public meeting for the party.

“I and the state secretary (Biman Bose) have publicly censured him. We have warned him not to use such language again and asked him to issue a statement apologising publicly. He has also been barred from addressing any party rally,” West Bengal Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said at a media meet here.

“We do not encourage such things and, if need be, we will take punitive steps against him,” Bhattacharjee said when asked whether the party was contemplating tougher measures like expulsion.

While addressing an election rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district Friday, Anil Basu had made some disparaging comments against Banerjee.

Local television channels picked up the bytes and have been continuously airing the clip. Some of the channels even censored the said comments by Basu, a former member of parliament, describing the words as “unsuitable for broadcasting”.

Soon after the chief minister’s announcement, Basu issued a statement apologising for his remarks.

The statement read: “While addressing a party rally the remarks I made against the opposition leader is not warranted. This is against the values and principles of our party (CPI-M). I am wholly aware of the public outcry in this regard. I apologise for my remarks.”

While describing Basu’s derogatory comments on Banerjee as “very unfortunate”, The chief minister, however, said those would have no bearing on the ongoing state assembly polls.

“People know our party, people know our workers. One or two people may have lost their mental balance, and we have to set them right. Under no circumstances we are going to tolerate such detestful remarks. But that should not be used to cast aspersion on the good work being done by the rest of our innumerable workers,” he said.

“People are also seeing that we have the courage to rectify mistakes,” he added.

Bhattacharjee alleged that the opposition too was indulging in mudslinging by making personal remarks against CPI-M leaders.

He was referring to Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee’s comments where he had asked details of the foreign funds received by an NGO, which, he claimed, was run by Bhattacharjee’s daughter Suchetana.

“My daughter does not stay with me. And she does not run any NGO. I don’t even feel like reacting to such ugly comments,” he said.