LOK SABHA AS ON 19TH SEPTEMBER 2012

Sitaram Yechury reacts to Mamata Banerjee’s charges

Reacting to  the allegation of  Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal and TMC supremo that it was Standing Committee of  civil aviation  headed by  Sitaram Yechury  MP and  CPI(M) polit bureau member recommended 51 percent  FDI in the civil aviation   Industry,  Yechury said that allegation was totally false, untrue and falsehood.

Yechury said that I am the chairman of the Standing committee civil aviation and transport, this issue never came in front of us. This sort of decision is taken by the executive. Mamta Banejee was union minister since the time of Narshima Rao government and also under NDA and UPA 2 and she must know about this that such decision is taken by the executive.

Yechury said, I also take this opportunity to point that CPI (M) had been a consistent fighter against the FDI and privatization in the civil aviation, there are many documents and records to prove it. It is only our party which had moved a statutory resolution in the parliament which is rarely moved on an issue in this sector. I as chairman of the committee can sight various reports which have been adopted unanimously recommending the government not to take this path.

We really do not know why she does not know after remaining so many years in council of ministers this fact that these decision are taken by the executive. It shows her lack of knowledge about the function of the government.

eom

New Delhi,

19th September, 2012

Mamata walks out of UPA II, Trinamool ministers to resign on Friday

DNA, Published: Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012, 17:42 IST

We will hit the streets to protest against the government decisions, Bannerjee said.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 20:40 IST

This government will last only three to six months, she said, adding thatTrinamool Congress was the biggest party in the UPA alliance.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 20:38 IST

Trinamool Congress ministers will resign on Friday, said party chief Mamata Banerjee.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 20:32 IST

Mamata Banerjee says Trinamool Congress withdraws its support form the UPA government.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 20:29 IST

Mamata Banerjee:

The government did not consult us before fuel hike.

We have always been snubbed by the government.

UPA has no respect for us.

We cannot stay happy if our heads are cut off.

The central government has always discriminated against West Bengal.

Our ministers will resign fromt he centre tomorrow.

Trinamool Congress withdraws its support from UPA II.

We are doing this for the common man.

We are very proud of what we are doing.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 20:24 IST

Mamata Banerjee is currently addressing the media.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 20:21 IST

Mamata Banerjee will be addressing the media shortly to announce the decision taken in the meeting.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 19:33 IST

The Trinamool Congress meeting in Town Hall has ended.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 19:30 IST

After Sonia Gandhi, Finance Minister P Chidambaram will also be meeting the prime minister.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 19:11 IST

West Bengal Congress chief said that Mamata Banerjee will not pull out of UPA.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 18:24 IST

Meanwhile, MNS has declared that they will be supporting FDI in multi-brand retail.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 18:07 IST

There are also reports that a cabinet reshuffle is on cards.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 17:45 IST

Reports coming in that Congress chairperson is currently on her way to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's house to discuss the Trinamool crisis.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 17:45 IST

Congress leader Renuka Choudhury said they are talking to Mamata Banerjee and that she will understand their stand.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 17:41 IST

Crucial meeting of Trinamool Congress parliamentary party to decide party's stand on hiked diesel price, LPG and FDI is currently underway in Kolkata.

Tuesday, Sep 18, 2012 17:39 IST

         

Tapan Sen, MP, General Secretary, CITU writes to Petroleum Minister

Dear Shri S Jaipal Reddy ji,

I draw your urgent attention to the statement of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas published as advertisement in the leading National Dailies today on 17th September 2012 under the heading “Was the increase in price of diesel & capping of Domestic LPG avoidable? No, for the following reasons:” (copy enclosed)

I totally disagree with the “reasons” detailed therein but that is not the purpose of drawing your attention here.

The point is that the said statement published by the Ministry suffers from misrepresentation of facts when it referred to the recommendation of the ‘all party Standing Committee of Parliament on Petroleum & Natural Gas on ‘capping of domestic LPG’.

Number one, the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Petroleum & Natural Gas (8th Report on Demands for Grants-2011-12) on this particular issue was not at all unanimous as has been claimed in Ministry’s advertised statement. I as a member of the Standing Committee, had submitted my ‘note of dissent’ on the recommendation on this particular issue which was published along with the Report and tabled in Parliament on 03-08-2011.

Number two, the decision of the Govt capping the domestic LPG cylinders’ availability to 6 cylinders annually for all households is at wide variance with what the Standing Committee actually recommended on that issue, contrary to what has been stated in Ministry’s advertised statement. The Standing Committee recommended, though not unanimously, the restriction on domestic LPG availability at subsidized rate for “people having an income of more than Rs Six Lakh per annum including those holding constitutional posts, public representatives like MPs, MLAs/MLCs.”

Let me again reiterate, I am not arguing here on the merit of what the Ministry sought to convey to people through this advertised statement. I like to state here only that such official statement of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, that too published as advertisement in all the national dailies should not indulge in misrepresentation of facts as pointed out in the preceding paragraphs.

I would request you to please look into the matter and do the needful so that corrective action is taken at the earliest to put the facts straight and without distortion or dilution.

With regards,

Tapan Sen

17th September 2012

UPA's most vociferous critic may script her own political decline in the state

West Bengal's Madame NO

By Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi, Business Standard, November 12, 2011, 0:28 IST

Later this month, Mamata Banerjee will have been chief minister of West Bengal for six months. Time for a balance sheet?

First, all the things she’s managed to get done — only because they’re easier to count. She’s taken some positive steps to revive the glory of the Presidency College of Kolkata, the institution that has given India some of its best thinkers. She’s managed to defuse the Gorkhaland crisis by offering a tripartite agreement, paving the way for the setting up of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) — an elected body for the Darjeeling hills.

But most of all, she has managed to establish a reputation as the most vociferous critic of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) within the UPA.

When the Centre increased the price of LPG earlier this year, Banerjee first resisted (“the Centre did not take us into confidence…” and so on). Then she took on a mien of martyred indignation (“the state government will bear the burden of the increase in LPG prices”) unconcerned about the fact that the state government’s finances are in no shape to take on the burden. She threatened to withdraw from the UPA over the current round of petrol price increase, only to recant later.

A Union minister has referred to Banerjee as a compulsive populist. It is hard to dispute this description.

Take her government’s attitude towards the price of electricity. West Bengal is considered a role model in power sector reform. The West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) was trifurcated as part of power sector reforms that began in 1985. In 2005-06, the state also corporatised transmission and distribution. There are three power companies in the state now, carved out of the electricity board that together showed a profit of over Rs 300 crore for 2010-11. The government did not privatise: and those employed by power companies (30,000 or so employees) are the only ones to get their salaries regularly because they don’t depend on the state government.

But things can change very fast. Demand for power has been rising and so has the price of coal in a state that depends mostly on thermal power. With the massive electoral victory in her pocket, Banerjee could have increased the cost of electricity in the first week of assuming power without any difficulty. Instead, after she took over as chief minister, one of her first meetings was with the power secretary and her bottom line was: electricity prices will not be increased. In Kolkata, the only area where a private sector entity provides power, the cost of electricity was increased in April 2011 in sync with the cost of coal, and it is likely to increase again. In the summer of 2010, West Bengal had a peak demand shortage of between 500 Mw and 700 Mw, which is expected to go up to between 800 Mw and 1000 Mw this summer. A perfectly healthy sector is going to be driven to sickness: because Banerjee doesn’t want to become unpopular.

But what she doesn’t realise is her troops are making her extremely unpopular. Somen Mitra, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP, took the unprecedented step of bypassing his own party to complain to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a letter about the activities of chit fund operators in Parliament — an important MP from his own party is a big chit fund “entrepreneur” and was admitted to the TMC by Banerjee only recently.

The biggest problem (although it is not clear if she sees it as such) is: Banerjee is TMC and TMC is Banerjee. Take her handling of the Maoist problem in the Junglemahal region. Subhendu Adhikari, described by TMC watchers as the man of the future, organised the TMC’s victory in east Midnapore. Adhikari ensured the Left was routed in this area using his supporters, but also the rather more persuasive powers of the gun. He is considered intelligent, popular and ruthless. In Banerjee’s dictionary this spells threat. So, she bypassed him and asked another leader Mukul Roy to handle the Junglemahal problem. Roy made no headway. So now Adhikari is back.

The thing is: no one knows who is in and who’s out. So the impulse is to ensure there is enough for dinner tomorrow, for who knows what might happen at breakfast today?

For the moment, Banerjee has little to fear from the parliamentary opposition. The Left Front’s disarray is embarrassing. Ill-health dogs former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, especially ahead of party meetings. The Left trade unionists are lethargic, missing even the opportunity to mobilise state government employees who are now beginning to get annoyed at the fact that their DA has not been revised because the state government doesn’t have the money.

But the challenges are snapping at Banerjee’s heels. West Bengal will see panchayat elections in 2012. How will the TMC fare? Will these elections represent the first glimmers of a Left comeback?

If Banerjee goes on like this, she will be the one to have scripted it!       

                                               

Of threats and pressure tactics

By Marcus Dam

THE HINDU, November 5, 2011 01:22 IST  

Is the Trinamool Congress' reaction to the recent hike in petrol prices about its ‘tolerance' wearing thin or about fending off charges of complicity?

By threatening to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance government over the recent hike in petrol prices, the Trinamool Congress leadership is trying to wriggle out of a politically deleterious situation in which the Centre finds itself, as disaffection mounts over the spiralling prices of essential items.

Needless to say, the threat is being made from a position of strength, the Trinamool Congress being the second largest constituent of the UPA. If carried out, it could pull the rug from under the feet of the government.

Whether the threat will be carried out or not is, of course, another matter. But the Prime Minister is certainly in for some hard bargaining on his return from his overseas tour if the apple-cart is not to be upset. For, all such threats — by definition in political parlance — are, for all practical purposes, pressure tactics.

Under attack in recent times from both the Left parties and, albeit with less stridency, the Bharatiya Janata Party, for not speaking out against economic polices of the scam-tainted Congress-led government at the Centre, the Trinamool Congress has found in the fourth hike in petrol prices this year an opportunity to express its resentment over not being consulted by the Congress in matters of major consequence, despite being a constituent of the UPA.

And in one fell swoop, it would also invalidate claims by her political rivals that she, by being a silent spectator in the government, is apathetic to the problems of the common man buffeted by the rise in the prices of essential commodities.

That the Trinamool Congress is peeved over the Congress riding roughshod over it was made clear in the reminder by its chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that while a pullout by the party would result in the toppling of the government at the Centre, it enjoyed a majority on its own and was not dependant on the Congress to stay in power in West Bengal.

Doubtless, the Congress in West Bengal plays second fiddle to the Trinamool — a political liaison that has rarely been harmonious but has survived because of the Congress in New Delhi insisting that it has. One can already see some more disgruntled sections of the Congress in the State secretly delighting in Ms. Banerjee's most recent posturing.

“Somebody has to bell the cat. If we are outside the government, we can at least speak in the interests of the people,” Ms. Banerjee has remarked. But it would be politically naïve to assume that the rise in the prices of petroleum products, the growing rate of food inflation and the consequent burden on the common man are the only reasons for her grouse.

Ever since assuming power in May, she has been expressing her displeasure over the Centre for failing to provide her government with a special financial package that would bail the State economy out of the bankruptcy it has allegedly inherited. The issue dominates her rhetoric. Is the pullout threat also a pressure tactic for extracting from the Centre the financial assistance?

By her own admission, the government of which her party is a part, has been responsible for the rise in prices of petroleum products “eleven times in twelve months” which she feels is “intolerable.” This begs the question why the Trinamool Congress was not as assertive of its opposition to the price hikes then, the way it is now. If one goes by what Ms. Banerjee has to say, it is the party's “tolerance” which is now wearing thin.

Or is it that the Trinamool Congress is finding it difficult to fend off charges of complicity each time there has been a rise in prices and of pursing an economic line that is no different from that of the Congress? For that has been the argument of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), its principal adversary in West Bengal.

At least the threat of a pullout from the government and all the hype it generates could be designed to project the impression that the party is not just sympathetic to the common man's concerns but that its position in the government should be taken more seriously by the Congress.

After all, over the past two-and-a-half years “we have not even been given a room [for the party] in Parliament,” not to talk of “we not willing to accept the burden [price rise] being thrust on the people,” according to Ms. Banerjee.

And even before one can doubt the seriousness of intent, she pre-empts any questions that could be asked in reference to it. The Trinamool Congress is not “blackmailing or bargaining” as might be made out by some, Ms. Banerjee, who has always had a penchant for histrionics, has said. “Forgive us, but we have not done any wrong,” she says, her hands folded.

Prakash Karat accuses UPA govt of patronising Mamata Banerjee and Maoists

PTI / Friday, September 17, 2010 18:46 IST

PATNA: The CPI(M) today accused the UPA government of patronising Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and the Maoists to oust the Left Front government from power in the 2011 West Bengal assembly elections in the state.

"The Centre is patronising the TC supremo and the Maoists to oust the over three decade old Left Front government from power in next year's assembly elections," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat told a public meeting in Patna.

He alleged that the UPA government was abetting Banerjee 'using Maoists' to kill 170 CPI(M) workers in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia in the state.

Thousands of CPI(M) workers had also been forced to leave home by armed Maoists apparently to ensure that the Trinamool Congress-led alliance won the assembly elections, the CPI(M) leader claimed.

He questioned the Centre's handling of the Maoist problem while drawing attention to the Lalgarh rally by the Trinamool Congress chief where a number of central ministers were also present.

Claiming that the killing of grassroot CPI(M) workers had increased in the state since 2008, he alleged that the Centre was a mute spectator to it.

He alleged that even secessionist forces like the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and Kamatapuris were allowed to be roped in by Banerjee in her bid for power.

Karat, however, said Left workers had launched action to retrieve lost ground in three naxal-infested districts bordering Jharkhand.

Warning the Maoists, he said they would soon be driven out from Lalgarh by his workers and not because central forces were deployed there. "Lalgarh me Maobadi nahin rah payenge."

He defended the Left front government and cited the implementation of land reforms, panchayati raj, scientific education in madarsas, prevalence of communal amity as its landmark achievements.

No riots took place in West Bengal during the anti-Sikh riots in late 1984 and post-Babri mosque demolition in Ayodhya in 1992, Karat said. The CPI(M) leader said the fight against reactionary and communal forces would suffer a blow if the Left forces were to be weakened in the country.

BENGAL OPPOSITION IN A DESTRUCTIVE MODE:BRINDA KARAT

KOLKATA, 5th MAY: A very typical feature of CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat’s mass rallies is that on arriving at the spot she does not climb to the dais or go near the podium waving. She makes a quick beeline for the women who usually in Bengal election assemblages sit to the front of the rallyists, plonks down, starts talking to them, and also manages to listen to their emergent as well as day-to-day problems amidst the prattle that inevitably follows.

CLOSE INTERACTION
The women -- of all ages -- find this very Communist gesture comforting in warmth as well as a bit of a thrill. Women rallyists have told us time-and-again after such tête-à-têtes with Brinda, that she allows them to bask in the reassuringly fresh air of relating themselves directly to the CPI (M) and to whatever the Party stands for-- through a top-level leader, a woman leader at that.

The series of rallies that Brinda has addressed at as far away a place at Cheliyama in Purulia to closer to ‘home’ at places around Kolkata have proved immensely popular among the common people in general for she speaks their language without the frills of political overload, explaining the politics of the evolving situation in simple, clear language. They also like the bit of class-based anger that comes out in her addresses, albeit in sober tones, in distinct and attractive phraseology. All her rallies are well populated.

MASSIVE RALLY
Addressing such a massive rally recently in the industrial zone of Khardaha in north 24 Parganas, Brinda spoke about the election battle assuming, as the days and nights go by, the proportions of a class struggle with the rich and their political formation ranged against the people. The poor are under assault, oftener than not physically, and the mass of the people are put under immensity of grinding load with the runaway prices affecting the householder every day, every month, every year. At the one end of the political spectrum stand the Congress, the BJP, and their corporate minders. At the other end are arrayed the people and their political formation like the Left Front and the CPI (M). The picture in Bengal is a reflection of the all-India scenario said Brinda who is an all-India leader of the CPI (M).

REJECT POLITICS OF DESTRUCTION
The opposition in Bengal are engaged in a politics of destruction. They would block all the paths to development, pro-people, pro-poor development. They would not hesitate to augment divisive forces ready to carve up the state again. They would frustrate all social welfare schemes. They have but one aim: to oust the popularly elected Left Front from office. They utilise the Lok Sabha elections not to speak about all-India issues but of issues, and non-issues pertaining to Bengal. They adopt a vow of silence in these terrible times. The stand that the opposition in Bengal adopts clearly marks out their class position.

Defeating all these conspiracies, in Bengal as elsewhere, a government for the workers, the kisans, the middle class, the women, the minorities, and the working masses would come up in Delhi, Brinda Karat had no doubt. Following the election the Third Front will gain and gather strength across the country. The more the reactionaries adopt tactics of violence and deceit, the more determinedly united the masses have become to ensure a victory for the third Front, concluded Brinda Karat.

Buddha pitches for non-Cong, non-BJP govt at Centre

Kolkata, March 19: Pitching for a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said a majority of the people in the country does not want the Congress or BJP to be in power.

Replying to a governor's address in the assembly, he said, "After the last Lok Sabha polls, Left had supported UPA to keep BJP out of power. But the Congress, which led the UPA, reciprocated by "bringing in US into the country". He said Left wanted an alternative government to be based on four principles: pro-people programmes, a balanced federal structure, secularism and independent foreign policy.

Blaming the US for the global recession, he claimed, the Left parties had been able to save the country's insurance and banking sectors from its effect by preventing government from opening these sectors to foreign investments.

“Approach U.N. rather than rely on U.S.” : Prakash Karat

KOLKATA, 3rd January, 2009: India should approach the United Nations Security Council with the evidence collected on the Mumbai terror attacks rather than relying on the U.S. to solve the problem, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Saturday.

Addressing the 43rd anniversary celebrations of the CPI(M) daily Ganashakti, Mr. Karat said: “It is unfortunate that the ruling establishment thinks that terrorism can be fought with U.S.’ help … What prevents the Indian government to go with the evidence they have collected to the U.N. and ask the Security Council to take action against Pakistan according to Resolution 1373?”
Instead of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram handing over evidence to the U.S. during his visit to that country, “let us internationalise the Mumbai attacks because not only Indians, many people from other countries had also died in the attacks.”

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, both West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mr. Karat stressed the need for a political alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, based on the principles of secularism, an independent foreign policy and pro-people policies.The struggle for alternative economic policies and rights for the working class would not succeed if the Left parties alone took it up.

“We have to gather other powers around us for carrying forward the struggle,” Mr. Karat said. He cautioned that the struggle would not succeed until the communal forces, “trying to deepen the divisions in society,” were “weakened and isolated.” Speaking on the trouble and unrest brewing in several parts of West Bengal, Mr. Karat said: “What is happening in Lalgarh, Kolkata, Nandigram and north Bengal cannot be seen in isolation. It is a well-planned onslaught against the CPI(M) and the Left Front government where every kind of instrument is used to isolate and weaken the party and the government.”

Mr. Bhattacharjee said Maoists, political elements from Jharkhand and the Trinamool Congress misled the tribal people in Bankura, Purulia and Paschim Medinipur districts. “The Nandigram incident would not have happened if the Maoists had not joined hands with the Trinamool,” he said.

On the Gorkhaland issue, he said: “Why cannot we live together in harmony? Let there be an election and that will decide who will govern but what is the reason to break away?” The Chief Minister underscored the need for greater industrialisation as agricultural development alone could not take the State forward. He regretted that unlike as in other States the Opposition here was bent on impeding development.

India cannot fight terrorism unless it

tackles communalism: Karat

KOLKATA, 3 Jan 2009 : Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said on Saturday the country cannot succeed in the fight against terrorism if it does not first tackle communalism. "Communalism creates polarisation. In the recent past, we've seen a series of terrorist attacks in India which were (allegedly) carried out by Hindu extremist groups in Malegaon or ethnic terrorist groups in the northeastern region," Karat told a seminar here.

"We've to put all these terrorist groups into one single basket if we want to put an end to this growing menace. This is a big challenge before us," he said at the seminar organised by Ganashakti Patrika, a vernacular CPI-M mouthpiece brought out by the party's West Bengal committee. "India has a notion that terrorism can only be fought with the help of the US. I feel if our country can knock the door of the United Nations' Security Council and seek a remedy from them, it'll be easier to put more international pressure on Pakistan," he said, accusing the US of "double-standards" in tackling global terrorism.

Karat was in the town Saturday to celebrate the 43rd foundation day of Ganashakti Patrika. He also attended party's state secretariat meeting. "What prevents India from going to the UN and furnishing all the evidence before it, instead of sharing it only with the US? We all should internationalise the issue of the Mumbai terrorist attack and get multilateral support from various countries," he added. Hinting at the possibility of forming a Third Front at the centre, Karat said the Left parties were trying to gather all the political forces under one umbrella to push for the demand of alternative economic policy in India.

Bengal CM urges Centre not to withdraw CRPF

Kolkata, Oct 30 (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday urged the Centre not to withdraw the eight companies of CRPF deployed in the state, particularly in the aftermath of the serial blasts in Assam.

Sources in CPI(M) said Bhattacharjee, while attending party's state secretariat meeting here tonight, telephoned Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil after being informed that Centre decided to withdraw CRPF personnel deployed in West Bengal. According to party sources, Bhattacharjee told Patil that the urgency of CRPF personnel in north Bengal, particularly in Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar districts where the militant outfits, including ULFA was active.

He also told Patil that keeping the central forces in the districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore was necessary to curb Maoist activities. "The situation calls for maintaining CRPF in West Bengal," party sources said quoting Chief Minsiter.

UPA govt. discriminating against Left-ruled states: CPI

New Delhi, Oct 23 (PTI) :The CPI today accused the Congress-led UPA at the Centre of discriminating against Left-ruled states, saying the governments of Kerala and West Bengal were "paying the price" for withdrawal of support."The Left-led state governments in the two states are paying the price for our withdrawing support at the Centre," CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters here.

He said despite the long-pending demand of restoration of the rice quota to "food deficit" Kerala, no step has been taken by the Centre as yet.The UPA government has slashed the rice quota of Kerala by as much as 82 per cent, he said.

On West Bengal, Dasgupta said five dredgers meant for desilting of the waterways at the Haldia Port were withdrawn and taken to work for the Sethusamudram Project."While we are not opposed to the Sethusamudram Project and want it to be developed, we are demanding the return of these five dredgers so that they could prevent the waterways (from) becoming totally unnavigable," he said.
PTI