Kolkata: CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury
on Monday rubbished Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's
charge that Maoists and Marxists were two sides of the same
coin and said she had no knowledge of communist movements
in the country.
"Somebody who is ignorant of the history of the
mainstream Marxists and the ultra left like Naxalites in late
1960s and the present Maoists can make such remarks," the
party politburo member told reporters here.
The Naxalites broke away from CPI(M) in 1967 and
formed their party CPI(ML) in 1969. The Maoists were the
present nomenclature of Naxalites, he pointed out.
CPI(M) was the principal target of Naxalites and the
hostility "towards us is continuing", he said.
To a question on Banerjee's demand for dismissal of
Left Front government in West Bengal, he said "there is
nothing new in the demand. It has been one constant element of
her politics".
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, November 02, 2009, 22:27