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Trinamul team's Bombay visit augurs ill for central govt

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would do well to monitor the situation as a three-member Trinamul Congress team goes to Bombay to take up with Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi the issue of the deportation of Bengali Muslims from the city.

Trinamul Congress chief Mamta Banerjee is under great pressure from her numerous supporters not only in her home state West Bengal but also from others outside the state to stop what is being described as the forcible eviction of Bengalis from Bombay.

Since she has risen to the political ranks as a protector of the poor and the weak, the Trinamul Congress chief feels it is necessary for her to pick up cudgels on behalf of the affected people in Bombay.

Trinamul Congress officials said Mamata was willing to undertake any initiative in this context, including withdrawing her party's support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.

One of Mamata's leading political aides, Ajit Panja, part of the party team visiting Bombay tomorrow, has been instructed to take up with Joshi the issue of the alleged harassment of Muslims living in Bombay. It is learnt that he will bring to Joshi's notice the alleged manhandling of Rajya Sabha MP Mohammed Salim (Communist Party of India-Marxist), who was recently in Bombay.

According to Trinamul Congress members, the Bombay police, goaded by Shiv Sena activists, manhandled Salim, who was finally let off only when he produced his MP's identity card.

They said this was one reason why the House leader of the CPI-M in the Lok Sabha, Somnath Chatterjee, stridently condemned the deportation of Bengalis, including Muslims, from Bombay, terming it as malafide, unconstitutional and illegal.

Deportation of Bengalis from Bombay has become an extremely emotional issue for voters in West Bengal, and politicians cutting across party affiliations have raised the issue. That is why, apart from the Trinamul Congress, the Congress and the Left parties too have deplored the deportations.

Trinamul Congress officials said that if the party team visiting Bombay does not get a good response from the chief minister, it could snowball into a major crisis for the BJP government at the Centre.

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