Mamata and Amar knock on PM, Prez door over Singur

Mamta Banerjee met Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil to demand action against the West Bengal Govt under Article 355 for its failure to honor the agreement in the Singur case, reports Srinand Jha. Spl Coverage

Mamta Banerjee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday to demand action against the West Bengal government under Article 355 for its failure to honor the agreement in the Singur case. The agreement stipulates that 400 acres acquired be portioned out and returned to farmers.

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The Trinamool Congress chief was accompanied by Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh.

Later, Mamata shared the dais with Singh, who announced that his party’s Bengal unit would be
filing a defamation case against Ratan Tata for his comment describing Mamata as a “bad M” and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a “good M”.

“Tata needs to make up his mind whether he wants to become a politician – or whether he wants to remain an industrialist,” Singh asked.

Expressing his solidarity with her over Singur, Singh said he would articulate his party’s opposition on the SEZ policy at the next meeting of the Congress-SP coordination committee scheduled on October 16.

“These are special ‘exploitation’ zones and our party is opposed to all such units, including the Reliance petroleum unit at Jamnagar.”

Quizzed about the emerging equations with Trinamool, Singh said he was in touch with all parties opposing communal forces — including Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam and the Assam United Democratic Front.

Mamata said so far as Bengal was concerned, her party was neither with the Congress nor BJP. She maintained that the Singur agitation was “a movement of the soil” and not a political battle.