Cong pacifies Mamata on Sonia-Basu meet

NEW DELHI, Nov 16: The Congress today tried to mollify Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee after her criticism of the Sonia Gandhi-Jyot...

NEW DELHI, Nov 16: The Congress today tried to mollify Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee after her criticism of the Sonia Gandhi-Jyoti Basu meeting, saying that the Cong-CPM togetherness was on secularism 8211; an issue which Mamata has already raised.

8220;We have to tell Mamata that the Congress and CPM are not coming together. An invitation sent by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust chairperson is not an invitation from the Congress president,8221; Congress spokesperson Mani Shankar Aiyar said today. He added that the Congress and the Left were 8220;always together8221; on the understanding that the BJP was the 8220;political representation8221; of communalism and it had to be fought.

Significantly, Aiyar played on secularism and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu8217;s lecture in Teen Murti on November 14 but didn8217;t say anything on the meeting later between Sonia Gandhi and Basu.

Today8217;s line has two purposes: To keep Mamata happy by talking of secularism as the main issue and not denying any betterment of tieswith the CPM which keeps the Left satisfied. The basic plan the Congress is working on is to bring the Opposition, and possibly some members of the ruling coalition, together against the Babri Masjid demolition on December 6, which comes a week after Parliament8217;s winter session begins.

With BJP in power and Babri Masjid demolition anniversary approaching, the Opposition is planning a large-scale protest. All this comes in the backdrop of the BJP-led coalition finding things getting tougher by the day.

The basic calculation being that, added to the Babri Masjid protest, the results of the November 25 round of elections in the four states will be advantageous to the Congress. The party is banking on a 3-1 verdict, Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram being possible victories, and this, it plans to market as a referendum against the Centre8217;s performance.

Plans are afloat to make the opening week of Parliament8217;s winter session a period of protest against the Union government on the twin counts of the November 25poll results and the Babri Masjid demolition. Should the protest build up mood against the BJP, the Opposition is planning to move in for the kill.

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These are early days but the moves become important given the Union government8217;s precarious survival with many allies drifting away from the BJP. For example, the AIADMK, PMK, Akali Dal, TDP and Trinamool Congress have made protest noises of differing intensities. It is in this background that December 6 is crucial. Mamata and the Left are separately observing the day as a 8220;black day8221;.

The Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha RLM of Mulayam Singh and Laloo Yadav will make their own plans for December 6. There is a move within the Congress to have joint protest plans for that day but nothing formal has been achieved as yet. Secularism, read December 6, is an issue which will unite most organisations among the current pantheon of 40 parties in the Lok Sabha.