Mamatas envoys

P. Chidambarams appeal to political leaders,NGOs and others to keep out of the conflict zone; she should not have sent Union ministers Mukul Roy and Sisir Adhikari to camp out in Salboni,close to Lalgarh. Apart from the danger to their lives posed by the conflict per se,the presence of senior political leaders is an impediment to the speedy conduct of the operations that are at a critical stage.

But if dispatching the Union ministers is irresponsible on the part of Banerjee,it is also bad politics that smacks of double standards. No one disputes her democratic significance and her right to exist and function as the strongest political voice against Left Front rule in West Bengal. But Banerjees words and actions,as in the present case,are discomfiting because she seems to have forgotten that her party is in government at the Centre,and that she herself is a Union cabinet minister. Publicly defying the Centre,dragging it into the CPM-Trinamool binary universe of retaliatory politics and asking it to trust her party instead of the Left Front will not do Banerjee,her party and her government any good. In response to the failure of the state machinery in Lalgarh and the Bengal governments inability to tackle the crisis,the Centre had provided the state with paramilitary security forces that are conducting the operations along with the state police forces. That is the logic of things as far as restoring law and order in Lalgarh is concerned.

Besides,Banerjee must remember her primary responsibility right now is that of the Union railways minister,not of Bengals shadow chief minister. If she and her Trinamool ministers believe they are better needed in West Bengal,far away from their ministerial establishments in New Delhi,they could consider resigning their posts.