This Article is From Dec 30, 2011
Snubbed by Mamata, Govt puts up a brave front
New Delhi: It was yet another embarrassment for the government at the hands of its ally, the Trinamool Congress when Mamata Banerjee's party moved amendments against the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha yesterday. But the government is trying to put up a brave front. "There are differences with allies, but won't say Trinamool Congress's approach is confrontational. We will speak to them," Home Minister P Chidambaram said today.
But the attempt at spin doctoring can't disguise the huge divide that was publicly displayed yesterday as Mamata Banerjee's party moved two amendments asking for the bill to be purged of all references to Lokayuktas or state-level anti-corruption agencies. The Trinamool said the section on Lokayuktas undermines the right of state governments to form their own graft laws. Despite reassurances and appeals from senior Congress leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, Ms Banerjee said she wanted her amendments to be put to vote.
And today, her party chided the government. "We are very very sad... the government handled it very badly. What happened yesterday was a caricature," said Derek O'Brien from the Trinamool Congress.
Ms Banerjee's MPs say that their opposition to the Lokayukta section or Part 3 of the bill had been expressed at the Parliamentary Standing Committee, where the bill was discussed and reviewed between August and December. "Our member raised the objections in the Standing Committee. And one of our leaders, Mr Kalyan Banerjee, raised the issue on the floor of Lok Sabha. After he made his speech on the floor of the House, we looked at the provisio that came to us; it was pretty apparent that states still did not have the autonomy they were looking for. We didn't get what we were promised. So, we decided to move the amendment in the Rajya Sabha," O'Brien told NDTV.
Another Trinamoool MP, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, had said yesterday that the Congress had failed to seek its views. "States should be taken into confidence and consideration in a much better way than it has been. We were not taken into confidence."
Mamata Banerjee's party had not shared government's views when it hiked petrol prices in November, and also when it decided to allow foreign super-chains like Wal-mart to set up stores in India - a decision forced into cold storage thanks to Mamata's insistence.