Kolkata:
He had promised "a fitting reply" and he seems to have delivered it.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has written to the Home Minister, alleging that "your assessment of the Bengal situation is surprising and not impartial." (
Read the letter)
Mr Bhattacharya has also said that Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) "which was earlier maintaining secret contacts with Maoist leaders and outfits are now openly organising meetings with them."
The postman has rung twice so far. First, Mr Chidambaram wrote to the West Bengal Chief Minister and was sharply critical of law and order in the state, as well as the deaths of political activists. He questioned whether Central forces sent to West Bengal were being misused by the government there. The Home Minister virtually ordered Mr Bhattacharya to disarm and demobilise the armed cadres of his party and referred to them as "Harmad Vahini" - a derogatory term used by Ms Banerjee's party for the Left's cadres.
"I strongly object to your using the nasty word coined by Trinamool Congress leaders to mean CPI-M party workers," Mr Bhattacharya has written.
The Left has accused the Home Minister of following Mamata Banerjee's line. She is a crucial component of the UPA coalition at the Centre, and has been amping up the charges against the Left as her home state gears up for elections, now just four months away.
Mr Bhattacharya has in his reply to Mr Chidambaram stressed that he has asked all parties in West Bengal to work together to prevent political clashes - Ms Banerjee's TMC alone remains uncooperative, he said. "This is not a happy situation and I am trying my best to stop these senseless killings," he writes.
The war of words has been a public one with the Left attacking the Home Minister for making his letter available in public before it reached Mr Bhattacharya.
The Home Minister has yet to respond to the letter sent to him but sources in his ministry suggest that he stands by his belief that law and order has deteriorated in West Bengal and that armed political clashes are a major concern ahead of the state's elections.