Left appeals to Trinamool to call off Friday bandh

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Kumar Sarkar

05 June, 2008

The Left Front chairman Biman Bose has appealed to the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to call of Friday's bandh in West Bengal pointing out that strike call had lost its relevance. Mamata has sarcastically rejected the appeal.

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HAVING SUCCESSFULLY sent its message home in a 12-hour shut down in Bengal, the Left Front chairman Biman Bose today appealed to Mamata Banerjee to call of Friday's 12-hour bandh on the same issue. The Trinamool bandh has lost its "relevance", he said implying that the Left front had beaten the Opposition in protesting against the steep hike, the worst in 12 years.

Bose said if any other political party had called the bandh before the Left Front did "we would have supported and not called one." He appealed to the Trinamool Congress to withdraw the bandh because after today's bandh it had lost its relevance.

Banerjee reacted to Bose's appeal with characteristic sarcasm. She said there was little point in telling someone not to do what you have already done, indicating that she was not budging from her bandh call.

The Left Front chairman countered Banerjee's argument that the Left was part and parcel of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre and that it was amusing that the Left had called a bandh. She had asked who the bandh was against. Bose said that the Left was not a part and parcel of the UPA. It has been supporting it from outside on the basis of a common minimum programme. The Left could not be made responsible for the economic policies of the UPA government, which it was fighting despite supporting it. He appealed to the Centre to roll back the prices of petroleum products, especially cooking gas.

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Bose called the price increase of fuel "anti-people" and said it would further raise prices of essential commodities and push the inflation to 10 per cent because it would have a cascading effect - raising transportation costs.

The UPA government at the Centre on Wednesday raised the price of petrol by rupees five a litre and diesel by rupees three a litre. The price of a LPG was increased by Rs 50 a cylinder.

A twelve hour bandh called by Left parties in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura against the hike in fuel prices passed off peacefully. Life was paralysed and bus, train and air services came to a standstill. The Communist Party of India – Marxist's (CPI - M) urban development minister, Asok Bhattacharya, got stranded in the Darjeeling Mail, which came to stand still in North Bengal. He was travelling to Siliguri from Kolkata.

Another shutdown is in the offing in West Bengal tomorrow with the Opposition Trinamool Congress calling a state-wide bandh on the same issue. The back-to-back bandhs in Bengal is one of the strongest reactions to the Centre's announcement of an increase in fuel prices, the steepest hike in fuel prices in 12 years.

The bandh called by the Trinamool Congress will further disrupt life in the state on Friday. Trinamool chief Banerjee demanded that the UPA government quit and dared the Left to withdraw support to the Congress led UPA government.

The state transport minister, the CPI (M)'s ebullient Subhas Chakraborty, meanwhile, clarified that buses of the state government would not ply tomorrow. "Each bus costs Rs 18 to Rs 20 lakhs. Who will bear the cost of damage?" he asked. He said buses of the state government were the first ones to be attacked during a bandh in Bengal. "Where even if a parrot calls a bandh, it takes place."