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Mamata crusade over Bengal land scam
by Gautam Ghosh

     Kolkata: Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee's open invitation to all the anti-CPI(M) forces in West Bengal to constitute a common platform to fight the state government's move to hand over farm land to the Salim group of Indonesia has put the Bengal Congress leadership into a serious dilemma. Banerjee gave the call to forge a broad-based alliance against the ruling Marxists at a mass convention in south Kolkata this weekend, apparently with an eye on the next year's Assembly polls. Aware of the adverse public reaction to the party high command's close relationship with the CPI(M) at the national level, a powerful section of the state Congress leaders wants to immediately join hands with the Trinamul Congress chairperson to isolate the principal Left Front partner over the Salim issue. However, they are still in a dilemma over their future course of action as the high command has not given its green signal on the question of participating in a strong anti-CPI(M) stir. Banerjee's mass convention is a significant political development as far as West Bengal is concerned.

     This was for the first time that political outfits with divergent ideologies joined forces with her over a common cause. Apart from the BJP, Trinamul Congress' ally in the state, representatives of the CPI(ML--Kanu Sanyal), Samajwadi party, United Communist party of India(UCPI), RJD and Janata Dal(United) attended it and took a pledge to oppose the CPI(M)'s 'attempts to grab cultivatable land on the plea of setting up new industries." The Trinamul Congress leader has made it absolutely clear that her party does not consider any one as "politically untouchable" in the fight against the Marxists on the Salim issue. The convention was also somewhat unique in the sense that representatives of the participating parties did not carry any banner of festoon. The lone representative from the state Congress was senior leader Kumud Bhattacharya who, however, addressed the gathering only in his individual capacity without any official sanction of his party. A large chunk of the state Congress legislators and district leaders, however, feels they should have been allowed to take part in the Trinamul Congress-sponsored convention to prove their anti-CPI(M) credentials.

    The Bengal Congress has not been able to initiate any effective movement against the ruling Marxists ever since the UPA came to power in Delhi with the left parties' support. "It was a golden opportunity for us to show our anti-CPI(M) stand. We were, however, told not to participate in the convention as the BJP representatives would be there. This argument does not stand scrutiny as parties with different ideologies joined hands on a common cause," said Abdul Mannan, for chief whip of the Congress legislature party. Another important legislator and PCC general secretary Sankar Singh holds an identical view. "The Salim issue has nothing to do with communalism. Hence the BJP's presence at the convention is hardly any reason to justify our absence," he observed. Even union water resources development minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was in favour of his party attending the programme. "I have extended my moral support to Mamata Banerjee's attempts to bring together all the anti-CPI(M) forces on a common platform," he said. The Salim issue has brought a sea-change in Ms Banerjee's political strategy. The Trinamul Congress leader, who had opposed the idea of a "mahajot" or "grand alliance" against the CPI(M) earlier and used to brand the Congress as the Marxists "B team," has decided to keep her party's door ajar for such an entente for the coming Assembly election. The Bengal peasant community's overwhelming response to her call for a united movement against the state government's attempts to hand over their land to the Salim group has obviously encouraged her to soften her anti-Congress stand. Her current agitation has also helped restore her party's secular credentials despite its alliance with the BJP.

     Most of the peasants, who are out to lose their land for the Salim projects' implementation, belong to the minority community and they have accepted Ms Banerjee's leadership to continue their fight. The state CPI(M) leadership has so far not been able to evolve an effective strategy to counter the Trinamul Congress chairperson's campaign. Ms Banerjee has been addressing public meetings in the areas where chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee held mass rallies to justify the Salim deal. The heavy turnout at her rallies continues to be a matter of grave concern for the Marxists. The state government is yet to respond to Ms Banerjee's challenge to bring out a "White Paper" demarcating the quantum of farm land to be handed over to the Salim group and the nature and amount of compensation to the affected peasants.

Sensex in correction mode closes 75 points down (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: On the back of profit booking across the board in the volatile market, the stock markets today witnessed a correction as the country's benchmark index slipped by 75 points. In the volatile market, the Sock Exchange Mumbai (BSE) 30-share sensitive index opened moderately higher at 8815.67 as against Tuesdays close of 8799.96 and even touched a new intra-day peak of 8821.84 before falling back to a low of 8757.60 in 30 minutes of trading on alternate bouts of buying and selling. The benchmark index ended the day at 8,724 points as against Tuesday's close of 8799.96 reporting a net loss of 75 points or 0.9 per cent. In the broader markets, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty, closed at 2,644 levels after touching an intra-day high of 2,669. The CNX mid-cap index slipped by around 0.6 per cent or 22 points to close at 3,891 levels. It had hit a high of 3,922 in the early morning deals. Ranbaxy Laboratories at Rs 513 led the charge in the Sensex with a gain of Rs 10 or 2 per cent followed by NTPC at Rs 108, which logged a gain of 1.7 per cent. Wipro at Rs 404 and Grasim Industries at Rs 1,353 logged a gain of almost a per cent each. Bucking the trend were ICICI Bank at Rs 561 and ITC Limited that lost around 4.8 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. Tata Steel and Hindalco also traded weak and slipped by 2 per cent each.

Rupee at 10-month low against dollar (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: Nervousness in the Foreign Exchange (forex) market due to increased demand for dollar from oil corporate and importers coupled with receding foreign fund inflows into the equity market have pushed the rupee down to 10-month low at 44.34 per dollar. The Rupee, which lost 33 paise in the last three sessions this week, opened at 44.18.20 per dollar on Wednesday and declined 10 paise. Meanwhile, the RBI Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan today declined any possibility of Central Bank's intervention in the money market. Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of FICCI-organised banking conference here today Mohan said, "The exchange rate is market determined. So long as there is no manipulation in the market central bank cannot intervene. When asked whether the Central Bank is ready to tolerate the sharp fall in rupee, Mohan said, "there is no question of tolerating it as the exchange rate is market determined. Analysts feel that the high current account deficit shown by the central bank is the main reason for the persistent heavy demand for dollar. According to the data released by the RBI, the country's trade deficit for the first quarter of fiscal 2005-06 rose sharply to 15.8 billion dollars as compared to five billion dollars during the same quarter last fiscal.

Cricket commentator Narayanan dead  (Go To Top)

     Bhopal: Well known cricket commentator .J.P. Narayanan, died this morning in Bhopal. He was 59. He was suffering from liver problems for the last four months. He was associated with All India Radio, for the last 30 years and gave live commentary to over 100 cricket matches in India and abroad. At the time of his death, he was employed with BHEL, Bhopal as General Manager (Public Relations).