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Mamata refuses to play ball, takes the moral high ground

George Iype in New Delhi

A day after she quit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's apex coordination panel, Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee stepped up her pressure on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to heed the demand for arresting the spiralling prices of essential commodities.

While a delegation of Trinamul members of Parliament met Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani to press for their demands on Wednesday, the prime minister's trouble-shooter, Defence Minister George Fernandes flew to Calcutta in an attempt to pacify Banerjee.

"The prime minister is worried that Mamtaji has quit the co-ordination panel. But he is ready to meet our party chief and sort out the problems," Trinamul MP Ranjit Panja told Rediff On The NeT after meeting Vajpayee and Advani in the capital.

Panja said the prime minister has put forward a two-point suggestion to ensure the continuity of smooth ties between Trinamul Congress and the BJP. They are: the finance ministry's meeting with chief secretaries of states will take appropriate measures to check the price-rise, and a personal meeting with Mamata.

But Vajpayee has refused to accept Mamata's main demands, to call a meeting of chief ministers to discuss hoarding which resulted in the current price-rise and a special economic package for West Bengal.

Vajpayee and Mamata are expected to meet later this week to sort out the misunderstanding that has arisen between the two. But BJP leaders believe Mamata's resignation is a pressure tactic to blackmail the prime minister before the crucial assembly election on November 25.

One, BJP strategists say Mamata's gameplan is to ensure that her image and standing in West Bengal would dramatically improve, by launching a movement against price rise.

"She wants the prime minister to give a sermon to all chief ministers, including West Bengal's Jyoti Basu on how hoarding and inaction from the state governments have resulted in the escalating price-rise across the country," a BJP official told Rediff On The NeT.

Many believe Mamata is being pushed against the wall by the Basu government and the Communist Party of India-Marxist which is all set to launch an agitation against price rise and the BJP coalition government at the Centre. "Mamata wants to grab the limelight before the CPI-M does it," the BJP leader remarked.

In 1996, the CPI-M had launched a similar agitation against the then Congress government led by P V Narasimha Rao at the Centre.

Second, BJP managers believe, Mamata's strategy is to demand her pound of flesh from the Vajpayee government and the BJP leadership by harping on price-rise on the eve of the state election.

Mamata is said to have two main demands: allocation of at least two Cabinet berths to her party when the next ministry expansion takes place and allocation of a ticket to the Trinamul Congress leader Nitish Sengupta from Delhi's Bengali-dominated Chittaranjan Park constituency.

But top Trinamul leader and MP Sudip Bandopadhyaya says Mamata's resignation from the co-ordination committee has not been forced by any "personal agenda."

"We had warned the government days before that Mamata would resign from the apex committee if the chief ministers' conference is not held to discuss the price rise. But like the price rise issue, the prime minister did not take any action on our demand," he told Rediff On The NeT.

"There is no question of the Trinamul continuing in the coordination committee that is not activated when grave issues like the price-rise are not discussed on a war footing," Bandopadhyaya said, adding that his party has no plans to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government.

But Trinamul sources said by quitting the coordination committee, Mamata is positioning herself to switch support to a Congress-led coalition government in case the Vajpayee regime fell following the forthcoming state elections.

However, if the BJP comes out unscathed from the state poll, Mamata will be in a better position to bargain for suitable representation in the Union Cabinet before re-joining the coordination committee.

But in an effort not precipitate the Mamata-inspired crisis, the BJP leadership on Wednesday contacted other allies like the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Akali Dal, the Biju Janata Dal to ensure that they don't take the same route.

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