News Analysis India

Tag: West Bengal

  • Dhankhar urges Mamata to provide information sought at earliest

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to provide information sought by him on various issues at the earliest.

    Dhankhar, who has been at loggerheads with the TMC government, claimed that his queries have not been responded to. He had on February 15 urged Banerjee to visit him at Raj Bhavan during the week ahead to discuss several issues to avert a “constitutional stalemate”.

    The governor, however, said that he has not received any response from her so far.

    “Hon’ble CM Mamata Banerjee has been urged to make it convenient for an interaction at Raj Bhavan anytime during the week ahead as lack of response to issues flagged has potential to lead to constitutional stalemate which we both are ordained by our oath to avert.”

    “Impressed upon Hon’ble CM Mamata Banerjee that ‘Dialogue, discussion and deliberation, particularly amongst constitutional functionaries, like the Chief Minister and the Governor, are quintessential to democracy and inseparable part of constitutional governance’,” he said in a series of tweets on Thursday.

    Dhankhar urged Banerjee to respond to all issues flagged thus far by him at the earliest.

    “There has been no response, now for long, to issues legitimately flagged,” he said in a letter to Banerjee dated February 15, a copy of which was attached to the tweet.

    He said it was the chief minister’s constitutional duty under Article 167 to impart information to the governor.

  • 24 years since forming TMC, Mamata only grew stronger amid rebellions

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who recently quashed a brewing internal rebellion with the iron-fisted rejig of the party’s national working committee, established once again that she was the sole commander in her camp, and no one, including her heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee, was fit to challenge her dominion.

    In TMC’s 24-year journey, the Bengal chief minister, who has earned herself the image of a gutsy leader, always made swift comebacks with greater ferocity as and when some leaders in her coterie revolted, and this time was no exception as she barely dithered to clip Abhishek’s wings amid the internal strife between old guard and fresh blood.

    According to sources in the party, the recent power struggle that had roots in her backyard, with the increasing demand for a definite retirement age and the ‘one person-one post’ policy, was aimed at phasing out the old guard to make space for young leaders handpicked by Abhishek.

    A section of leaders claimed that junior Banerjee was “misguided” by political consultant Prashant Kishor and his I-PAC team, roped in to boost the party’s prospects in elections.

    The feisty TMC boss, in her bid to stave off the growing rebellion, quickly dissolved the national-level folios, and formed a new working committee with just 20 members, thereby effectively leaving her as the only person capable of calling the shots in her camp.

    “Minimising the role of Abhishek and distancing I-PAC were necessary to end the discord in the camp. Mamata managed the entire thing with such a precision that the battle was won even before it started,” a senior TMC leader, privy to the development, told PTI on condition of anonymity.

    Although Abhishek has been made a part of 20-member committee, it is mainly packed with her loyalists.

    An undertaking was also signed by party veterans and the Diamond Harbour MP, pledging their complete trust in the leadership of the Mamata Banerjee.

    Party insiders feel the move was not just aimed at ending the power tussle; it would also give the TMC boss time to groom her nephew as her heir apparent.

    Banerjee’s political journey, if analysed, goes on to show that internal rebellions have shaped her career in a big way over the years.

    In the mid-nineties, then Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra and Banerjee had engaged in an inner-party struggle over the control of the state unit, but Mitra managed to retain his post.

    The development became a turning point in her life and career as Banerjee left the Congress shortly after to form the Trinamool Congress in 1998. Ten years down the line, Mitra, too, joined the TMC and accepted Banerjee as his leader.

    However, in 2014, he returned to the Congress and remained the party’s state president till his death 2020.

    After forming her party in 1998, Banerjee had first faced rebellion when founding chairman Pankaj Banerjee quit the camp to return to Congress, just months after it was formed.

    Both had later set differences aside, and he retraced his steps to TMC. He was made the Leader of the Opposition from 2001-2006.

    Subsequently, differences between the two cropped up again, following which he decided to quit politics.

    The second major rebellion was recorded in 2001, when Ajit Panja, one of the founding fathers of the TMC, slammed Banerjee over her decision to quit NDA over the Tehelka scam that had rocked the Union cabinet.

    He was placed under suspension for dubbing Banerjee’s decision to leave NDA and align with the Congress as “insane and politically immature”.

    Panja unsuccessfully tried to form his political platform by breaking away from the TMC.

    In 2003, he returned to the TMC.

    Soon after the TMC rejoined the NDA in 2003, Banerjee got a whiff that his colleague and then MP Sudip Bandopadhyay was using his rapport with the BJP leadership to manage a berth in the Union ministry, and immediately expelled the leader for six years. He, too, found his way back to the Mamata Banerjee-led party ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

    A significant revolt that had affected TMC’s political fortunes was the one led by Subrata Mukerjee, who is often referred to as Banerjee’s political mentor. He switched over to the TMC from the Congress in 1999 and became the mayor of Kolkata after the party won KMC polls in 2000.

    In 2005, however, just ahead of the Kolkata civic elections, differences arose between the two, and Banerjee wanted someone else as the party’s mayoral face.

    Mukherjee and his loyalists deserted the party and formed a separate platform leading to TMC’s defeat. He then joined the Congress.

    Following a gap of five years, Mukherjee was back in the TMC, and was given a berth in the state cabinet. He remained a member in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet till his demise last year. Similar revolts were quelled by her in the years that followed.

    As an ally of the Congress-led UPA-2, veteran TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi was made the railway minister in 2011 as Banerjee took charge as Bengal’s chief minister.

    A year later, Trivedi’s decision to increase passenger fare did not go down well with Banerjee, and she openly opposed it as “anti-people”.

    She asked Trivedi to roll back the announcement, but he refused to oblige.

    An infuriated Banerjee got Trivedi replaced as railway minister by the then TMC general secretary Mukul Roy, who immediately rolled back the proposed hike.

    Roy, who was the unofficial number 2 in the party from 2011 to 2014, later fell out with Banerjee, following Abhishek’s sudden rise through the party ranks.

    He quit the TMC and joined the BJP in 2017, and was appointed as the national vice-president of the saffron party.

    In a U-turn after the assembly elections last year, Roy, having won polls on a BJP ticket, returned to the TMC and was termed by its leaders “as one of their own”.

    “Mamata Banerjee forgives opponents when they surrender before her. But she never forgets. She is a fighter. The more you challenge her, the more powerful she gets,” a veteran TMC leader told PTI.

    Political analysts feel leaders like Banerjee, who have achieved a cult status, never favour challenges within the camp.

    “For leaders like Mamata Banerjee, the party revolves around her mass following. Those who challenged her never had a mass following like she does. Leaders may end up finishing their political careers, trying to corner her,” political analyst Suman Bhattacharya said.

    Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty claimed that the after-effect in case of Abhishek might be different, given the fact he is a part of the family.

    “It seems Mamata Banerjee is not ready to hand over her party’s baton to her nephew right now. She might want to groom him as a political asset. The baton will be handed over to Abhishek once she feels that all his threats have been politically neutralised and her nephew was ready to lead the way,” Chakraborty added.

  • BJP government trying to snatch away rights of common people: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday took a dig at the BJP-led government at the Centre for its attempt to introduce the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) in the country and said it was an attempt to “snatch away” the rights of the common man.

    She said the Centre is selling off the country by disinvesting governmental concerns and expressed concern over a lot of the people in the situation.

    “Farmers are not getting the minimum support price and they (the Centre) are selling Railways, SAIL, Air India, Coal India and everything. If the country itself is sold, then how will its people survive?,” Banerjee said at a state government programme where freehold title deeds were handed over to eligible refugee families.

    Keeping up her condemnation of the BJP, the TMC supremo, who is one of its strident critics, said “They (the BJP) do not give people their rights, on the contrary take them away in the name of NRC and NPR. We (TMC) do not snatch away the rights of the people because we believe that it is the Constitution which has given it,” she added.

    Banerjee said that people in the country were not getting justice and attempts were being carried out to “alter” the country’s history and demolish its heritage.

    “People do not get justice…They are being told lies. The history of the country is being altered suddenly, heritage is being demolished. Women, minorities, SCs, STs and OBCs are being tortured. There are attempts to make people forget the original root of the Hindu religion,” she said.

    The chief minister was also critical about the Centre’s role in combating Covid-19 and alleged that the countrywide vaccination drive was delayed by it.

    “You (Centre) are not ashamed that so many lives were lost in the pandemic. You delayed providing vaccines to the people. On the certificates for Covid vaccinations you are printing (PM) Modiji’s photographs. And then you are taking credit for vaccinating the people!” she said.

    Questioning the spending of the PM Care Fund has been spent, Banerjee said that the Centre was not paying the states their dues.

    “You (the Centre) give funds to the state from the taxpayers’ money and that also not on time. We (Bengal) are yet to receive Rs 80,000-90,000 crore,” she said.

    The feisty leader also fired a fresh salvo at the Centre’s central vista project and the hologram statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the India Gate in New Delhi, which she said, has gone “missing”.

    “In Delhi the BJP is destroying everything. They had recently put up a hologram statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose but now even that is not there,” she mocked.

  • Suvendu Adhikari’s brother Soumendu not given BJP ticket in West Bengal municipal poll

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: BJP has not given ticket to Soumendu Adhikari, who had joined the saffron party following the footsteps of his elder brother and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, for the February 27 municipal poll in Kanthi raising eyebrows in political circles in West Bengal.

    With this Kanthi municipality in Purba Medinipur district will not have a contestant from the Adhikari family for the first time in three decades.

    Soumendu Adhikari was a former chairman of the municipality before he joined BJP in January 2021.

    He had been its administrator till 2020 after the civic body’s term had expired a year ago.

    Soumendu, who is the secretary of BJP’s Kanthi organisational committee, rubbished speculations in political circles about his not being fielded by the party.

    “We (BJP) don’t believe in the culture of vesting the responsibility of running a municipalty to the same family forever. For me that is dynastic politics and BJP does not believe in it,” he said.

    Taking a swipe at the ruling TMC, Soumendu said “We (BJP) are not a private limited company like some other party. We will win Kanthi if there is no intimidation or terror on election day”.

    During the campaign for the 2021 state poll BJP had often described TMC as a private limited company run by its supremo Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

    Soumendu’s father Sisir Adhikari, an MP, was the chairman of Kanthi municipality from 1990 to 2005 and Suvendu Adhikari occupied the post from 2006 to 2010.

    Soumendu had been at the helm of the civic body since then to 2020.

    Senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim when asked said, “Simply put he is scared of losing. Hence he does not want to contest”.

  • West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee arrives at Lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav receives her at airport

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday reached Lucknow, where she will address an election rally and hold a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav during her two-day visit ahead of the state Assembly polls.

    Yadav welcomed her at the Amausi airport here and shared this information on Twitter.

    “We defeated together in Bengal, now we will defeat in UP. This is a promise to Didi, we will emerge winners. Warm welcome and greetings to Didi in UP,” the SP chief tweeted sharing a picture with Banerjee.

    Mamata Banerjee, who came out of the airport with the SP chief, was also welcomed by her party workers.

    On Tuesday, Banerjee is scheduled to reach the SP office where she will address a joint press conference with Akhilesh Yadav.

    Apart from this, she will address a virtual rally.

    Before leaving for Lucknow, Banerjee in Kolkata gave a call to defeat the BJP in the coming elections.

    She said Yadav has invited her to campaign for the BJP.

    “We (TMC) want BJP to be defeated and Akhilesh to win Uttar Pradesh. All of us should support him in the fight against the BJP. That is the reason we have decided not to contest in Uttar Pradesh this time,” Banerjee, who is the Trinamool Congress chief, told reporters in Kolkata.

    Banerjee said she will visit Varanasi later in February but the date is yet to be fixed.

  • Union Budget: Mamata says zero for common man, Amit Mitra calls it a hoax, BJP hits back

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Terming the union budget presented in Parliament on Tuesday as a “Pegasus spin budget”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it has got nothing for the common people who are being crushed by inflation and unemployment.

    Banerjee’s principal chief advisor Amit Mitra claimed there is no direction for financial growth in the union budget and it is “either a hoax or lack of goodwill”.

    The opposition BJP supported the Union budget as “pro-people” and asked the TMC government to come out with a white paper on the amount of investment that has materialised in the state in the last ten years.

    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presenting the union budget in Parliament said the country’s economic growth is expected to be at 9.2 per cent in the current financial year on the back of a sharp rebound in the economy.

    Criticising the budget, Banerjee said the Centre was lost in “big words signifying nothing”. “BUDGET HAS ZERO FOR COMMON PEOPLE, WHO ARE GETTING CRUSHED BY UNEMPLOYMENT & INFLATION. GOVT IS LOST IN BIG WORDS SIGNIFYING NOTHING – A PEGASUS SPIN BUDGET (sic),” she tweeted.

    Mitra, who was addressing a virtual press conference, said India is the only country globally with stagflation and the union budget will hit rural employment further with the reduction in allocation for the job guarantee scheme.

    “There is no allocation for social security schemes. The biggest thing is that there is no solution for middle class employees in the budget. Around 1.20 crore middle class people lost their jobs in lockdown. What is allocated for them in the budget? What is allocated in the budget for the families of those who lost their lives due to COVID? There is nothing,” he said.

    Mitra, a former finance minister of the state, said there is no direction of financial growth in this union budget. “The income tax structure remains unchanged. There is nothing for the poor and middle class. The Centre’s budget is either a hoax or a lack of goodwill,” he said.

    Mitra said the amount allocated for 100 days work had been reduced from Rs 98,000 crore to Rs 73,000 crore in this year’s budget, which is a “terrible thing”.

    The budget does not address the problem of 30 million unemployed people or inflation of 14 per cent of wholesale prices or 6 per cent of the increase in consumer prices.

    “It does not stimulate demand by putting money in the hands of the common people – something that all other countries are doing,” he said.

    The BJP on the other hand accused Mitra and the TMC government of destroying the state’s economy. “The union budget is a pro-people budget. The TMC has opposed it for political reasons. But before opposing it, TMC should answer why Bengal has been pushed to a debt trap. It should come out with a white paper on the investment the state has received and those which has been implemented on the ground,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.

    Criticising the union budget as “anti-people’, CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said it is a “Sale India budget conceptualised by a party which has no contribution in either the country’s independence or nation building.” 

  • West Bengal allows schools, colleges, varsities to reopen from February 3

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The West Bengal government allowed schools to reopen for classes 8 to 12 from February 3 as the pandemic situation improved in the state.

    Addressing a press conference on Monday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said colleges, universities and polytechnic institutes will also reopen on that day.

    “We will decide on reopening primary schools later,” she said.

    Banerjee said the COVID-19 situation in the state has improved a lot, because of which certain relaxations are being given.

  • Netaji’s statue at I-gate: Nice gesture says daughter Anita Bose-Pfaff

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The daughter of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Anita Bose-Pfaff, on Friday hailed as “a nice gesture” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement about installing a statue of the iconic freedom fighter at India Gate, and hoped it will put to rest the controversy over rejection of West Bengal’s tableau for the Republic Day parade.

    Welcoming the decision as “better late than never”, Bose-Pfaff said the announcement took her by surprise.

    “I am very happy about the decision. It is very good location. I am certainly glad that his statue would be put up at such a prominent place. What surprises me is it came all of a sudden now. One might have prepared a bit earlier, but better late than never, I must say. I hope that the controversy about the tableau can also be put to rest in a satisfactory manner,” Bose-Pfaff told PTI over the telephone from Germany, where she lives.

    When asked if she thinks that the decision was taken to end the tableau controversy, she said she is not in a position to comment on it.

    “I don’t know. Let’s put it that way. Last year the centenary celebrations had started, and there were announcements that all sorts of things should be done. This committee (for celebrating Netaji’s 125th birth anniversary) was set up, of which I am also a member, (the panel) never called a meeting. As far as I know, I haven’t heard about it.”

    “Then all of a sudden, when West Bengal government had proposed to send a tableau, the central government turned it down. I do think that even if the decision came late, it is not a bad decision. It is a nice gesture in any case,” she said.

    Ahead of Bose’s 125th birth anniversary on January 23, the prime minister announced on Friday that a grand statue of the iconic freedom fighter will be installed at India Gate as a symbol of India’s “indebtedness” to him.

    Till the statue, made of granite, is completed, a hologram statue of his will be present at the same place, he said. Modi said he will unveil the hologram statue on January 23.

    As the rejection of West Bengal’s tableau for the Republic Day parade snowballed into a major row, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informing her that the CPWD’s float for the occasion pays homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but her TMC was implacable, saying the state’s “dignity has been hurt”.

    In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee had expressed “shock” at the rejection of the state’s tableau, themed on Bose and his Indian National Army.

    It also featured other Bengal icons like Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo.

    Bose-Pfaff, the only child of Bose, had earlier said the legendary freedom fighter’s legacy has often been “partly exploited” for political reasons.

  • TMC welcomes Centre’s decision to erect Netaji’s statue, says it aims at putting to rest tableau controversy

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress on Friday welcomed Centre’s decision to install a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate in the national capital, but asserted nonetheless that it was aimed at countering criticism after the rejection of West Bengal’s tableau themed on the nationalist leader for the Republic Day parade snowballed into a major row.

    The real tribute would be have been paid had the Centre taken steps to unearth the mystery shrouding Netaji’s disappearance, TMC said.

    “As the rejection of West Bengal’s tableau on Netaji has created a major controversy, the Centre is trying to divert attention. The decision to install the statue of Netaji is only aimed in that direction. But we welcome the decision. At the same time, we feel that the real tribute would have been paid had the government taken steps to unearth the mystery shrouding his disappearance,” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.

    Echoing him, party MP Sougata Roy said after the rejection of the tableau on Netaji BJP’s claim of respecting icons of the nation stood exposed.

    “We welcome the decision. But we feel there is no harm in allowing Netaji’s tableau by the West Bengal government at the Republic Day parade. It was rejected due to narrow-minded politics. Now, as the BJP and its theatrics on the icons of our country has been exposed, it decided to install the statue,” Roy said.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday announced that a grand statue of the freedom fighter will be installed at India Gate as a symbol of the country’s “indebtedness” to him .

    Till the granite statue is completed, a hologram statue would be put up at the same place, Modi said.

    The prime minister said that he will himself unveil the hologram statue on January 23, the 125th birth anniversary of the nationalist leader.

    As the rejection of West Bengal’s tableau for the Republic Day parade snowballed into a major row, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee informing her that the CPWD’s float for the occasion would pay homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but her TMC was implacable saying the state’s “dignity has been hurt.”

    In a letter to Modi on Sunday, Banerjee had expressed “shock” at the rejection of the state’s tableau which is themed on Bose and his Indian National Army.

    It also featured other Bengal icons like Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo.

    Anita Bose-Pfaff, the only child of Bose, had said on Monday that the legendary freedom fighter’s legacy has often been “partly exploited” for political reasons.

    She minced no words while acknowledging the fanfare that marked the start of Bose’s 125th birth anniversary year celebrations in 2021 in Kolkata had something to do with the elections in West Bengal.

    “The opening of the anniversary year was celebrated in a bigger way, of all places in Kolkata, had something to do with election and election prospects in Bengal. The fact that nothing happened this year certainly the issue is not as important as last year,” she had told PTI in an interview.

    All India Forward Bloc, the party founded by Netaji, too welcomed the Centre’s decision but criticised the exclusion of West Bengal’s tableau highlighting Bose’s contributions.

    “We welcome the decision to install the statue of Netaji at India Gate. But we feel his legacy should not be seen through the prism of Centre-state politics. The Centre should have allowed West Bengal’s tableau,” Naren Chatterjee, the state secretary of the party, said.

    Bose had launched the AIFB in 1939. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said the BJP is trying to “hijack” the legacy of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

    “The high-level committee that was formed to plan a year-long programme to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of the great leader never discussed any such thing. As there has been a controversy, the BJP took this shortcut to counter the criticism,” he said.

  • No internal feud in TMC, incident blown out of proportion by media: General secretary Partha 

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress general secretary Partha Chatterjee Tuesday said, there is no internal feud in the party, and the recent war of words among its leaders over comments by its national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on containing COVID-19 in West Bengal was “blown out of proportion by the media”.

    Every single TMC member – leader or worker is working under the leadership of party supremo Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, he told reporters.

    “TMC will hold organisational polls in Netaji Indoor Stadium in the city on February 2, where office bearers at its different levels will be selected in a democratic manner,” Chatterjee said.

    He was replying to queries about the recent war of words between Srerampore MP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay and some other leaders, including Arambagh MP Aparupa Poddar and Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra over the recent comments by Abhishek Banerjee suggesting banning of all political and religious activities for two months over the pandemic situation.

    “There is no point in bringing Abhishek Banerjee into the controversy. The entire incident is being blown up by a section of the media,” Chatterjee said.

    ALSO READ: Abhishek Banerjee should not have aired his views in public: TMC MP Kalyan

    TMC, he said, will hold the organisational poll at Netaji Indoor Stadium in the city on February 2 where office bearers at its different levels will be selected in a democratic manner. “We remain a united family. Each one of us will work under the guidance of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. The organisational poll will be held under their guidance. I as returning officer cannot comment beyond that,” Chatterjee, also a state cabinet minister, said.

    The details and modalities of the organisational election, to be held after a gap of about five years, will be declared soon, including issuing of notification for the poll. The list of voters and observers will be compiled by January 25 after talking to all concerned.

    ALSO READ: TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s ‘Diamond Harbour model’ kicks off inner-party debate

    Asked for his comment on the jibe by saffron party leaders against the alleged war of words within TMC, Chatterjee said “We don’t attach importance to such utterances of BJP, which had built its organisation in the state mostly with individuals who had deserted their original parties before the assembly poll. Those who did so started leaving the sinking ship after the state poll. There is not much left in the BJP organisation in West Bengal now”.

    Mocking at BJP, he said, “What is to be said about a party in which a central minister of the rank of minister of state (Santanu Thakur) speaks against the party leadership in his own state and, a veteran like Tathagata Roy (senior leader and former governor of Tripura and Meghalaya), does the same thing in his tweets frequently”.

    Chatterjee, however, said he would not like to comment on the internal affairs of the BJP.