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Ties with Mamata Bannerjee : Tight-rope walking by Congress |
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The Congress Central leadership appears to have given a green light to the West Bengal unit of the party to join hands with Mamata Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress on the issue of farmers’ interests. The party says that the farmers’ interests have been compromised by the Left Front Government’s decision to allow the Tata Motors small car project to come up at Singur in Hoogly District. But while rallying behind Mamata Bannerjee in her bid to get the Tatas to relocate the project, the Congress leaders emphasized that they do not want the protests to come in the way of the Tatas dream to roll out a rupees one lakh car from West Bengal or the need to industrialise the State.
“Let’s make it clear, we have nothing against Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s industrialisation programme, or the Tatas’ small-car project,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi said. “Ratan Tata is an ideal industrialist. We would like to have him here,” he added.
After five years, senior Congress leaders shared the platform with Mamata on September 27 and announced a series of protests against the police action in Singur to dislodge Trinamool Congress supporters who had laid siege to the block office against land acquisition.
Congress leaders such as Somen Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and Sudip Bandopadhyay urged the government to structure an all-party initiative and “take us (the Opposition) into confidence”. The Congress leaders at the rally criticised the “heinous police assault” on Mamata and referred to Singur in general terms. “It’s an attack on womanhood,” thundered Das Munshi.
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