In a curious development West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who seldom lets go a chance to attack the UPA-II of which she was once a part, on Wednesday came out in open support for “our (New Delhi’s) external policy” drawing a clear line between the policy charted by her party and the policy followed by her Government.
In what could produce a diluting effect on her rigid stance on the botched Teesta water sharing treaty with Bangladesh, Banerjee told the State Assembly that it was immaterial what her party thought on certain international issues when it came to the policies followed by the External Affairs Ministry. Addressing the House at the completion of its Platinum Jubilee year Banerjee said, “When we go abroad then the country is my priority (and) I can’t say only my party views. I have to express my view in favour of my country. This is the protocol.” When “many people ask me what is our external policy,” she replies, “Government policy is the party policy,” Banerjee quoted herself as telling the people abroad.
The Centre’s Teesta Water Treaty with Bangladesh had fallen flat after the Chief Minister then an important ally of the UPA-II had vehemently opposed the pact. She has also opposed the exchange of Chitmahals (or adversely held pockets in each other’s territories) with the eastern neighbour as India and Bengal would lose larger tracts of lands to that country. Banerjee said, “Country’s interest was “more than the party policy in some areas.” The 75th anniversary of the State Assembly was being attended by lok Sabha Speaker Meera Kumar and President Pranab Mukherjee.
Nonetheless, even before the Opposition Congress could feel good at her readjustment of stances, the Chief Minister launched a scathing attack on the State Opposition parties including her former allies and the Marxists for boycotting the House in its Platinum Jubilee celebrations. launching a frontal attack against the Opposition outfits she said they should have “learnt little bit of political courtesy” that was “followed in a parliamentary democracy.”
The Congress and the left which had started sailing in the same boat in the recent weeks had boycotted the programme. The Congress refused to attend the function on account of alleged “lies peddled by the Chief Minister against the UPA-II in the Assembly.” Banerjee exploded inside the House saying “Assembly is not the place meant for ego clashes.” She added the decision of the Opposition to skip the function had degraded the prestige of the House and Bengal as a whole in other parts of the country.
Md Sohrab veteran Congress MlA earlier said the party had intimated the AICC of the boycott as the Chief Minister was wrongly blaming the Centre for not sending funds to Bengal. “We wanted the Speaker to let us reply to her statements in the House but we were not allowed to do so.” Marxists had other issues. “We have been pushed to the brink. The left workers are attacked and killed, their houses burnt, our elected representatives are forced to resign at gunpoint. There was no other way but to boycott the function” Opposition leader Dr Suryakanto Mishra said.