The CPI-M State Secretariat on Tuesday deplored Union HRD Minister M M Joshi's statement that ‘Marxist-led governments in Kerala and West Bengal carried out state-sponosred terrorism to make political rivals fall in line.’

In a strongly-worded reaction, the secretariat said that Joshi was either ignorant of the situation in these states or that he was just airing baseless things fed to him by local leaders of his party. “Whatever be the case, his statement was baseless and irresponsible,” the party said. The statement of Joshi, it said was intimidatory and amounted to violation of the federal principle of non-interference by the centre in the state autonomy.

The HRD minister, at a press meet Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, charged the LDF government with carrying out state-sponsored terrorism and that the state had slipped in education and information technology due to wrong priorities of the CPI-M. Bureau Report