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Singur: A Waterloo in the making for Mamata?
Saturday December 01, 2012 05:47:51 PM,
Anurag Dey,
IANS
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Kolkata: Faced with
criticism, intra-party feuds and disgruntled farmers, West Bengal
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is facing the gloomiest phase in
office, 18 months after she ousted the Left.
While the opposition, including recently divorced ally the
Congress, are gunning for her government, Banerjee this week found
a new baiter in Press Council of India chairman Markenday Katju.
From calling her "intolerant and whimsical" to questioning her
integrity, Katju was vociferous in his attack. He asked her even
to apologise to "innocent people who have been victimised" by her
administration.
Stating that her ways were "very unhealthy", he warned that
Banerjee "will not be able to remain chief minister for long"
unless she changed her ways and became more tolerant.
"It is still not too late if you listen to my advice and change
your ways," Katju said in a letter addressed to Banerjee.
Banerjee is also facing music within her Trinamool Congress where
leaders are gradually turning cynical about its functioning.
The fact that she is at the helm of a financially bankrupt state
with investors showing hardly any interest has added to her woes.
While Banerjee says she is unruffled by the growing criticism, the
cancellation of a scheduled public meeting at Singur- the very
place which catapulted her to power - is seemingly an indication
of the political heat reaching her from this volatile rural belt
of Hooghly district.
A section of Singur farmers who were in the Banerjee-led movement
against Tata Motors in 2007-08 showed their disenchantment by
shouting slogans against newly-appointed Minister of State for
Agriculture Becharam Manna.
The farmers, who had not accepted cheques from the erstwhile Left
Front government for giving away their land for the car project,
were upset over not receiving the promised dole of Rs.2,000 and
rice at Rs.2 per kg for months.
In a bid to contain the discontent among the farmers and to signal
all is well, Banerjee held a district administrative meeting at
the same BDO office from where she was driven out during the Left
rule.
But the deployment of a huge police force at the Singur block
office was a signal that all is not well in the rural belt where
Banerjee once walked freely.
The fact that high profile party colleague Sovandeb Chattopadhyay
and Singur legislator Rabindranath Bhattacharya have turned rebels
has added to her woes.
Chattopadhyay, the first Trinamool legislator after it was formed
in 1998, wished to quit after he was assaulted by a rival faction.
Bhattacharya is sulking after being shunted from the agriculture
to the low profile statistics and programme implementation
portfolio.
He dropped a bombshell claiming that Trinamool cadres were
extorting money from people and that Banerjee was aware of it.
It sparked a war of words between Bhattacharya, Banerjee's trusted
aide during the 2007 peasant movement in Singur, and Manna,
another prominent face of the movement.
Amid the political chaos, the Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) and the Congress praised Bhattacharya for his "courage".
The CPI-M has predicted an inevitable split in the Trinamool. "It
is a matter of time before it splits," said CPI-M leader Surjya
Kanta Mishra.
(Anurag Dey can be contacted at deyvil@gmail.com)
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