Three cheers to Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress chairperson, may be acerbic, aggressive, mercurial, and at times politically pestiferous as she seemed to be when she insisted for some bizarre reason that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should oust her party colleague and Railway Minister, Dinesh Trivedi.

But none can question her earnestness in purpose, commitment to the cause, and readiness to fight for it without caring for its political fallout. She has shown this more than once in West Bengal, especially through her prolonged and protracted agitation against the Singur Nano project which forced Ratan Tata to shift the project to Gujarat; she has also shown this more than once in her encounter with the Congress oligarchy at the Centre.

Mamata Banerjee may not be a corporate communist like Prakash Karat or Sitaram Yechuri whose communism is self-serving, anachronistic and opportunistic; but she scores well above others in her forceful articulation of what she thinks is politically correct particularly in the context of the well-being of the subalterns.

In all probability Pranab Mukherjee would not have become the President of India if Mamata Banerjee had her way, which she would have had but for the opportunistic Samajwadi Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav going for political trade off with the Congress by betraying her in self-interest. Banerjee was frank and earnest in admitting that in the prevailing political circumstances she had no choice other than supporting Mukherjee much against her wish.

Mulayam Singh can be a dangerous ally as his concerns are not people-centric and developmental. His political pyrotechnics can stump the Congress and bring down the UPA ministry any time after the Trinamool Congress leaves the UPA.

Mamata Banerjee has been fighting the UPA government’s unrealistic and anti-people decisions in every sector; encouraging crony capitalism; decisions involving vital national interests taken without consulting the UPA allies, and presenting them as fait accompli UPA decisions; chicanery of holding back the decisions under pressure when political tempers are high and suddenly foisting them on the nation later, and so on.

While other UPA allies have not been clear and consistent in their reactions to the shifting sands of UPA politics, Mamata Banerjee has been clear-headed and consistent in her stance.

Given the dismal scenario of the UPA government it should not be surprising that Mamata Banerjee’s announcement that her party’s ministers would submit their resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and her party would submit a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee on September 21 stating its withdrawal of support to the UPA government is bold and well thought out. For when there was strident opposition to an earlier decision to  allow FDI it was put on the back burner stating  that decision on FDI will be taken only after consulting all allies and all the states. The decision allowing FDI taken a couple of days ago flies in the face of this announcement which no self-respecting coalition partner would take lightly.

While FDI cannot be an anathema on any country because of the ongoing fast-paced globalisation, India has to create the necessary conditions for taking advantage of FDI without allowing it to be an Octopus on the nation, and for ensuring that Indian markets don’t lose out.

The UPA government had ample time to create these conditions and prepare road maps of market highways and bye-ways and regulatory mechanisms for free and fair market-play. In the absence of the necessary conditions and road maps, FDI in India, particularly in the retail sector, will not be a reform but a ruin, an invitation to national anarchy, and to re-colonisation of the country by foreign financial sharks.

Sensing the unfolding scenario, Mulayam Singh Yadav has already started criticising the Congress and talking about a third front. With the departure of the Trinamool Congress, the UPA’s troublesome wheel of tragedy of errors would come full circle — from its 2G Spectrum gate to its Coalgate to its ultimate exit gate. In the elections likely to take place in another six months or so, the Congress may pay a heavy price for the UPA’s misdeeds, governance for sheer survival, scams, political arrogance, undemocratic and autocratic functioning, duplicity and double speak, lies and damned lies, Goebbelsian propaganda by pseudo-constitutional pundits like Manish Tewari who had the audacity to question the constitutional mandate of the CAG and what should be his Laxman Rekha.

In the departure of the Trinamool Congress, Mamata Banerjee may not gain anything other than her and her party’s pride. But the departure will make the writing on the wall loud and clear to the UPA, its other allies, and the whole nation.

The author is a sociologist and commentator on public affairs
prk1949@gmail.com