Amidst apologies, Buddha says all's well on home ground

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said he is sorry for his statement made to justify violence by CPM cadres in Nandigram.

He had said that those opposed to land acquisition in Nandigram have been paid back in the same coin by CPM activists.

“I had said the people have been paid back in the same coin. I should not have said it,” said Bhattacharjee.

The statement he intended to make may have been lost in translation. But the West Bengal Chief Minister is sorry anyway.

His retraction comes weeks after he defended the recapture of Nandigram by the CPM cadre by saying the Opposition has been "paid back in the same coin". It was a statement that was likened to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's post Godhra action-reaction one.

In the face of criticism from left-leaning intellectuals, the Opposition and even a tough talking India Inc, Bhattacharjee admitted that “Nandigram was a political and administrative failure.”

Is the man hailed as the Deng Xioping of the Indian Communists worried that brand Buddha has taken a beating and that in turn could set the clock back on the process of industrialisation in West Bengal?

After all, IT majors like Infosys have expressed their unease over the Buddhadeb government's go slow on land allocation.

“That’s not true. IT companies wanted land near the Kolkata airport which wasn’t possible,” defended Bhattacharjee.

It wasn’t just India Inc Buddha was reaching out to, the Chief Minister assured that all's well between him and CPM's friend-turned-foe Governor Gandhi.

“The Governor is a good friend of mine. We don’t just discuss administrative matters but also literature,” said Bhattacharjee.

His charm offensive in the Capital may have been borne out of the realization that the Nandigram fallout could be more damaging than anticipated.

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