Close on the heels of the Bengal party patriarch, Jyoti Basu’s stunning criticism of city police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee for his remarks with regard to the right of police in intervening in marriages amongst  adults, the CPM on Saturday cracked the whip, directing its leaders against making public statements on the issue.

Ruling Left Front chairman Biman Bose, who issued the diktat after a meeting with the state leaders here at the party headquarters, declined to comment on Basu’s stinging criticism of the police commissioner.

“I have no comments to make on what Jyoti Basu said,” was his cryptical reply to the newsmen.

Basu slammed the commissioner for his  statement at a press conference last week that the police would  interfere in cases where a marriage had taken place between families where social standards widely varied. “The police commissioner’s remark is in very bad taste. He should have never said that. What he has said is his own view and the government does not subscribe to it. The chief minister heard his remarks on television and is very perturbed over it,” Basu told newsmen.

Both the state government and CPM have been facing intense political heat from all quarters over the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rahman, a 30-year-old IT professional who got married to Priyanka Todi, hailing from a very rich businessman’s family in the city. A section of the party leaders who had refused to share responsibility for the alleged mishandling of the case by top cops, demanded the scalps of the “guilty” cops including the police commissioner himself.

Alarmed over the trend of some party leaders issuing statements, quite damning for both the party and the government, the CPM top brass decided to firmly rein in matters and barred all leaders from giving statements to the media on the issue.