Things are not quite well with the UPA. The Naxal attack in Dantewada on the one hand and absentee allies on the other may cause trouble for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of the government?s grand anniversary dinner.
With the Naxal attacks in Dantewada casting a shadow on the internal security record of the UPA government, there was already a pall over the celebrations. But Trinamool Congress chief and railway minister Mamta Banerjee?s obstinate refusal to come to Delhi has another potential embarrassment written all over it.
Banerjee, in the midst of a growing controversy over railway accidents, has declared that she would not be leaving Kolkata for Delhi anytime soon.
Banerjee has been quite emphatic over her reasons for not coming to Delhi, not least because of local elections in Kolkata. ?They are asking me why don?t you stay in Delhi? I said why should I go to Delhi? Parliament is not on. I have no work in Delhi. Why should I go there? The CPM is trying to push me to Delhi. But I will stay in Bengal. India is my birth place and Bengal is my motherland. I will live in Bengal as long as I live,? she said.
Senior Congress leaders are quite upset with Banerjee?s attitude. ?She is a regional satrap. They spend many years fighting with entrenched interests in the state and doggedness becomes inherent in their character,? said a Congress leader quite resigned to her ways. ?Mamta is Mamta,? he added.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley was less accommodating equating Banerjee?s behaviour with that of chemicals and fertilliser minister MK Alagiri. We have a government where ministers refuse to come to Delhi to attend to departmental work and rarely attend Parliament to answer any questions,? he said. ?The Prime Minister has to decide to take a call on this,? he added.
As of now, BSP chief Mayawati has been extended an invitation to the celebrations, and her deputy in Delhi Satish Mishra and MP Brajesh Pathak are expected to attend in stead. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav are also expected to attend the function.