New Delhi, April 9 (Inditop.com) Within hours of Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s remark that the “buck stops” at his desk over the Dantewada Maoist massacre, a mollified West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Friday extended his full support to the central government to deal with the rebels, saying this was not the time for a blame game.
“This is not a time to blame any one. It is the time to work together. We must work collectively,” said Bhattacharjee, addressing reporters at the Banga Bhavan in the capital.
He was answering questions by reporters asking for his reaction to Chidambaram’s remark accepting “full responsibility” for the Maoist massacre of 76 security personnel in Chhattisgarh and that the “buck stops at my desk”.
Bhattacharjee said he had discussed the issue of Maoist violence with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and would speak with him again after the prime minister returns from his visit to the US and Brazil.
“Until and unless we work collectively, it will be very difficult to deal with Maoist violence,” the chief minister told reporters here.
On Monday, Bhattacharjee had slammed Chidambaram for saying that the “buck should stop at the chief minister’s table” on checking inter-party clashes in West Bengal.
An angry Bhattacharjee had said Chidambaram’s remark was not the “language of politicians”.
He had even asked the home minister to mind his words. “What is the situation in the country now? He should perform his own duty. I am carrying out my responsibilities,” the chief minister had said.
“I know the responsibility is mine no doubt, but the language is not good. It (buck) is slang. Such language is not used by politicians,” Bhattacharjee had told reporters.