Let Basu raise Subhas issue: CPI-M

Kolkata:  The CPI-M would discuss the issue of West Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakraborty’s induction into the party’s central committee if veteran leader Jyoti Basu raises the matter in the forthcoming meeting of the politburo in the city on April 29, member Sitaram Yechury said on Monday.

“If Basu raises this matter (Chakraborty’s induction) in the coming politburo meeting in the city on April 29, we will definitely discuss it,” Yechury told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session on Inflation and Its Impact on the Economy.

Describing Basu as the “most respected leader” in the party, Yechury said that he (Basu) had admitted his mistake of making a public statement on Chakraborty. “It is rare to admit mistakes in the Marxist party and in the country,” he said.

Basu, who earlier stated Chakraborty should be accommodated both in the central committee as well as in the party’s state secretariat, had frankly admitted on Friday that he had breached party discipline by publicly airing his views on it. “What I have said about Subhas, I should not have said publicly. This goes against party discipline. What I can say within the party, cannot be said outside it,” Basu told reporters on Friday. After the meeting Basu, however, said that the substance of his statement about Chakraborty was justified.