JOIN USTMC to cooperate with other Opposition parties, if they reciprocate: Mamata Banerjee
The Trinamool Congress will “cooperate” with other opposition parties in both Houses of Parliament if they also reciprocate, the regional party’s supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Banerjee, who is on a visit to New Delhi, had a meeting with her party’s parliamentarians in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. She later told journalists that the Trinamool Congress was open to cooperating with other parties in opposing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, particularly in protesting against its bid to use its majority to bulldoze the Opposition and forcefully pushing through bills in Parliament.
"You have seen that if the opposition raises its voice, because of the majority, the ruling party passes bills forcefully without even voting. They don't accept reports of standing committees or select committees,” the Trinamool Congress supremo said. “We are afraid whether our parliamentary democracy will persevere and its prestige and respect, which has been preserved till now will be protected," she said.
The chief minister of West Bengal pointed out that some of the Bills the Modi Government wanted to take up for consideration and passage by Parliament during the winter session would lead to interference in the domains of the State Government.
"They have to understand that every state has its own problems and issues. Each state is represented in Parliament, which has different issues, language and problems. Parliament cannot forcefully go on without listening to us,” she said. "Our party will face them boldly and coolly and cooperate with other opposition parties to fight against the atrocities,” she added.
“Our party will play its role constructively, boldly, but coolly. We will cooperate with all the opposition parties, if they want to cooperate with us, if they want to join with us in the fight against the atrocities” Banerjee said on Wednesday.
She, however, added a rider, stating that the Trinamool Congress would cooperate with other opposition parties if they would also reciprocate. Her comment came hours after the Trinamool Congress’s Lok Sabha MP, Sudip Bandopadhyay, made a surprise appearance in a meeting of the opposition parties convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, had convened the meeting to discuss strategy and explore the possibility of coordinating moves against the Modi Government during the winter session of Parliament. But Bandopadhyay’s attendance in the meeting surprised many as the Trinamool Congress had been distancing itself from the Congress and had stayed away from such meetings during the monsoon session of Parliament.
The Trinamool Congress was criticized by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, for allegedly going soft on the BJP. Chowdhury, who is also the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, had lashed out at Banerjee after she had given a clean-chit to Modi even while criticizing the union Ministry of Home Affairs, led by Amit Shah, and some other “conspiring BJP leaders” for “misusing” the probe agencies like the Directorate of Enforcement or the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for targeting the TMC leaders, including several ministers of her government, and harassing them. He had alleged that Banerjee had been extending an olive branch to Modi “out of desperation” as probes into alleged corruption by several leaders of the Trinamool Congress had made a dent in her image of being a politician with honesty and integrity and exposed the reality.