Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: After causing much discomfiture in the CPI(M) in Kerala, US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks have once again come to haunt the Left party. In a fresh revelation, it was disclosed that former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had told the then US ambassador Timothy Roemer in 2009 that the party needs to “either change or perish”.
According to a newspaper report, the whistleblower site revealed that the former chief minister in a meeting with Roemer on October 13, 2009, had criticised the party’s ideology.
Not only this, Bhattacharjee had also pitched for US investment in West Bengal and requested the US ambassador to help bring American businesses to the state.
The CPI(M) party leader also vehemently praised US President Barack Obama during the meeting.
The newspaper stated a cable sent by the US consul-general in Kolkata on October 27, 2009 as saying: “Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that his Communist Party of India-Marxist must ‘either change or perish’ and he lamented the lack of technocratic expertise within party leadership in a meeting with the Ambassador in Kolkata.”
Earlier, another diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks had said that Kerala CPI(M) leaders, including former chief minister VS Achuthanandan and party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, had met US officials and discussed foreign investment possibilities when the party was in power in the state.
First Published: Saturday, September 03, 2011, 09:54