After a docile stint when it let some bills through and refused to join Congress and Left demands for the resignation of “tainted” ministers, the Trinamool Congress put up a protest Monday morning. Its MPs demonstrated outside Parliament with its typical props such as earthen pots and strings of paddy against the land bill. The bill is stuck in the joint committee of the two Houses amid indications that the government may not be keen to push it through in the current session. [related-post] The Trinamool’s protest also comes at a time when corruption and the alleged inaction of the government on corrupt ministers has washed out the entire first week of the monsoon session. Its reluctance to join the protests inside the House has caused friction in the Opposition, culminating in an exchange between the Congress’s Sushmita Dev and the Trinamool’s Kalyan Banerjee. An unfazed Trinamool has declared that it will, like it had done during the winter session, stage protests every day this week on various issues that require attention. “We are committed to fighting corruption, in fact we were the first to give notice for an adjournment motion for the Vyapam scam,” said MP Sudip Bandopadhyay. “We chose to protest against the land bill because given the uncertainty about the running of the House, there is no forum available for us to voice our concerns about these issues that affect the common man.” Even on Vyapam, the party is not asking for Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s resignation as the Congress is. On the charge of breaking opposition ranks, Sudip said: “We did not speak today on the terror attack because we wanted to give the impression of a united opposition. Left and BJD spoke; we did not, out of solidarity with Congress.” Party chief Mamata Banerjee issued a statement from London: “Saddened to hear about the killings in Gurdaspur. We must unitedly pledge to fight terror.”
