New Delhi, July 25: It was a packed house in Lok Sabha on Friday but Railway Minister Mamata Banrerjee was missing.
The Minister’s absence carried a message – she was angry with the Land Acquisition Act that was discussed in the Cabinet on Thursday. Mamata had even threatened to walk out of the Cabinet meeting.
Her contention: she couldn’t agree at the Centre to what she had opposed in the state during the Nandigram agitation.
“She has always felt strongly about this issue so how can she agree to it?” Trinamool Congress MP Shatabdi Roy said.
Mamata’s strategy seems to have worked with both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee promising to send the bill to a standing committee of Parliament.
The Land Acquisition Act allows private developers to access 70 per cent land directly from farmers for economic projects, the rest 30 per cent can be acquired by the state government. Mamata’s contention is that no farmer is adequately compensated.
The political aim is clear: till the 2011 Assembly elections in West Bengal, Mamata is unwilling to compromise on the land acquisition issue.
Congress had thought that a huge margin of seats during the General Elections meant that it will not have to buckle under pressure from the allies but it has realised that Mamata, with her eye on Bengal, is proving to be no different from the Left.
–Agencies