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The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, laid the foundation stone of an extension programme of the Metro Railway in Calcutta on May 20. Quite shamelessly, and without any regard for democracy, the BJP government, despite its caretaker capacity in which it is expected to function, made it a saffron exercise and the ceremony became a mockery of a government function while later the same day, the Prime Minister sang praises for Tagore at a function to mark the release of cassettes on the poet. Even earlier, he had mde a trip to Churulia to visit the birthplace of Kazi Nazrul Islam. There could have been nothing wrong in these three functions had not they been done in proper fashion and at the correct time. A caretaker government like that of Mr Vajpayee cannot fashion an official function as electioneering; in fact, the law makers had made it clear that such functions should best be avoided before elections since they can be taken as poll exercises as well as concretising promises to garner votes. Mr Vajapeee did just that and the Left Front government openly criticised him with the acting chief minister Buddadev Bhattacharya staying away from all the three functions.

The CPI(M) state secretary , Mr Anil Biswas, said that Mr Vajpayee had transgressed all ``norms of political decency'' and that ther state government had registered its protest. Mr Bhattacharya had the last word; he said that he did not attend the Tagore function because from whatever he had ``read of the poet,'' he did not find any reason to share the dais with a BJP leader and that too, at a function where the main topic of discussion would naturally stem from Tagore's philosophy.