Mamata Banerjee met Trinamul Congress MPs in New Delhi on Wednesday and asked them to raise their voice in Parliament on issues concerning Bengal and coordinate with other Opposition parties to ensure unity among the non-BJP parties.
At the meeting held in the residence of veteran Trinamul MP Saugata Roy, the Bengal chief minister spent around two hours with the MPs in chalking out the party’s strategy in the 17-day winter session of the Parliament, which started on Wednesday and would continue till December 29. Trinamul national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee was present at the meeting.
“There are several bills (the Centre will bring this session) which are very dagerous (for the state).... These bills would destroy the federal structure of the country. We have discussed all this in detail with both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members.... Our party would play its role in the Opposition properly,” Mamata told reporters after the meeting.
Over the past few months, especially since Trinamul abstained from voting in the vice-presidential poll, which allowed NDA nominee Jagdeep Dhankhar an easy victory, there have been several questions in the political circles in Delhi on whether Mamata has mellowed her stand vis-a-vis the BJP.
Against that backdrop, there was a lot of curiosity about Mamata’s instructions to her party’s MPs at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting. Mamata said her MPs would raise the issues “boldly but in a cool manner” in the Parliament.
“We had seen earlier that several bills were passed forcibly in the Houses because they got a big majority. It is always seen that they (BJP) try to bulldoze the Opposition’s voice. We will cooperate with other Opposition parties in the protest if they wanted to join us,” Mamata said, indicating the party’s interest in the floor coordination with others.
A Trinamul source said the party would register its protest against the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, which it apprehended would curb the state government’s control over cooperative societies.
“It is a clear move to grab the control of the cooperative system from the hand of the state government. This would certainly go against the state’s interest. A similar move to interfere with the state’s subject is prominent in many other bills like the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill and the cantonment bill. We have decided to protest both inside and outside both the Houses against such moves,” said Trinamul Rajya Sabha member and national spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy.
The winter session of the Parliament is likely to be stormy as several Opposition parties, including the Congress, have already decided to go all out against the government on issues related to price rise and unemployment which affect the economy and thus hurt the common man. The Congress has already conveyed to the government that it wants proper discussion on the 16 bills that are likely to be introduced in the current session.
At an all-party meeting held in the Parliament on Wednesday, Trinamul MPSudip Bandyopadhyay spoke on the threats to the federal structure, besides raising issues related to the northeastern states — a key focus area of the party in view of the polls in Meghalaya —, the impact of price rise and unemployment on common people and women’s reservation.
“Our leader had asked us to raise the issues involving the state of West Bengal and instructed us to keep the Opposition unity intact.... During the session, we will highlight how the Centre is trying to impose an economic blockade on Bengal, which is not desirable. We will also raise the sufferings of people because of the halt in the flow of funds under the 100-day job scheme and the hardships of people in Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda because of the Ganga’s erosion,” said Bandyopadhyay.
