Mamata slams brake on strike

Mamata Banerjee, in whose dictionary D has done a somersault to mean “development and not destruction”, rapped a party MLA for threatening a transport strike four days after she promised an end to the wall-graffiti raj.

Less than 24 hours after Swarnakamal Saha, the president of the Bengal Bus Syndicate, announced a three-day strike if the state government did not hike fares by August 9, he was forced to slam the brakes under orders from “Delhi”.

Mamata’s missive from the capital to the Trinamool MLA from Bowbazar was blunt: decide which hat you want to wear, a transport body’s leader or an elected representative of the party.

“As a people’s representative, you cannot get involved in a three-day transport strike. You will have to decide whether you will act as the chief of a transport owners’ body or as a responsible legislator of your area,” was what Mukul Roy, the junior minister for shipping, conveyed to Saha on Friday afternoon.

There was more. “As a Trinamool Congress legislator, you cannot participate in any bandh or strike because we are opposed to them. Bandhs and strikes cause more hardship to people instead of addressing their problems,” was how Roy concluded Mamata’s message to Saha.

By evening, the president of the largest bus owners’ body in town was left with a stuttering engine.

“Following a directive from the party chief, I am withdrawing myself from the proposed transport strike. However, other transport bodies may go ahead with it,” he said.

At least 13 other transport owners’ bodies have joined the strike threat demanding a fare hike in the wake of the fuel price rise.

Would he resign as president of the Bengal Bus Syndicate, in the wake of his U-turn? “I shall decide on the matter on Saturday at an emergency meeting of the transport body,” he said.

Saha will have a tough time explaining his flip-flop to the lobby that has propelled him to a seat of power. “Whatever he is today is because of the support from the transporters’ lobby. In this hour of crisis, if he betrays us because of his political ambition, he will be in trouble,” warned another leader of the bus operators.

On a much larger political canvas, Mamata’s intervention to dissuade her MLA from joining the strike is being seen as a turning point in her race to be chief minister.

“At the July 21 martyrs’ rally at Esplanade, she had given a positive signal by claiming that she wanted development and not destruction. Today, she underlined this message by asking a party MLA not to get involved in a strike,” said Trinamool state president Subrata Bakshi.

Party sources said Mamata, who has been distancing herself from strikes and bandhs with every electoral triumph, is determined to project the image of “a pro-development administrator” in her last lap towards Writers’ Buildings.

On Monday, she had revealed another facet of what many are referring to as the “new and improved Mamata” by announcing that she would not allow political graffiti to sully the walls, again catching her partymen on the wrong foot.


 The Telegraph Metro