Why Mamata can't protest fare hike

By Malabika Bhattacharya

KOLKATA, SEPT. 1. After her return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) signalling a virtual surrender to pressure, the Trinamool

Congress chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, finds herself at the receiving end over an issue which she as the Railway Minister exploited to her advantage. The anger in West Bengal over the steep hike in railway fares effected a few days ago by the Railway Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar, is being deftly orchestrated by the ruling communists as well as the Congress, Ms. Banerjee's arch-rivals, with the twin-objective of attacking the Centre and Ms. Banerjee.

Ms. Banerjee, who perceives a roadblock in Mr. Nitish Kumar, is extremely unhappy over the fare hike about which she knew beforehand because it occurred at a time when she was ``planning'' to wrest back her old portfolio. Given her penchant for agitation, she could have either offered to resign or hit the road with yet another agitation. But the ground realities are such that she can do neither.

Nobody knows it better than Ms. Banerjee that the NDA partners, who swallowed their pride and accepted her back in their midst only at the Prime Minister's behest, would not tolerate her if she raises the fare hike issue. She had made herself ``unavailable'' for comment in Parliament and outside on the railway fare hike. She deftly wriggled out at the last moment of all post-hike public engagements. Her shadow, Mr. Sudip Bandopadhyay, the Trinamool chief whip, in Parliament, was permitted to make some customary noises.

``If she (Ms. Banerjee) were the Railway Minister, this hike would not have taken place . But, we believe the critical issue of safety for railway passengers forced the hike,'' says Mr. Bandopadhyay.

In Bengal, the ruling Left Front and the Opposition party, Congress, while enjoying Ms. Banerjee's acute discomfort, organised a string of demonstrations. None of them was directly aimed at Mr. Kumar, who is believed to be enjoying warm relations with both the denominations. A measure of the Leftists' good equations with Mr. Kumar was available on Thursday when Mr. Basudev Acharya, the Communist Party of India(Marxist) MP, said that the public sector wagon builders, so far starved of orders, had been assured of bulk orders for wagons by Mr. Kumar.

For Ms. Banerjee, the current situation is unenviable because of several factors. First, she is increasingly realising to her chagrin that in the three months following the May elections, the ruling Communists have cleverly marginalised her and the Trinamool in the overall scheme of things by giving Bengal an immensely responsive and fleet-footed Government headed by Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as well as a modern and caring party organisation. Working in tandem in pursuit of a prosperous and developed Bengal, the two have largely succeeded in rolling back the ``culture of political violence'' that they say Ms. Banerjee's Trinamool has sought to incorporate into Bengal before the May Assembly polls.

The findings of opinion polls, carried on Mr. Bhattacharjee's 100 days in office last week, and affinity for the Bhattacharjee's Government have come to Ms. Banerjee as a jarring revelation that she is increasingly going out of the reckoning in her own backyard. She cannot train her guns on Mr. Bhattacharjee or party bosses such as Mr. Anil Biswas or Mr. Biman Bose, because their image of being clean, committed and fair-minded is very much intact.

By contrast, the regular media expose on the Trinamool's drift, intellectual bankruptcy and, above all, involvement of many of its functionaries in criminal activities has made Ms. Banerjee's party a suspect in popular imagination. Many of Trinamool's 60 or so MLAs are uncomfortable after realising that the minorities forming the spine of their votebank perceive her return to the NDA as a ``betrayal'' because they had decided to back her before the polls when they saw her teamed up with the Congress. The rupture of the relationship with the Congress amounts to a betrayal, they feel.

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