Click to play videoKolkata: The stage is set for the next battle between Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Earlier, the Buddhadeb government, which paid one-third of the money for the new metro line in Kolkata was absent for the inauguration and it was an all Mamata show. Now, an advertisement in the leading dailies announcing a ministry scheme displays what looks like the Trinamool Congress symbol. The CPM is crying foul.
The CPM has shot off an angry letter to the Prime Minister asking just why a Railway Ministry advertisement announcing a new scheme for students prominently displays what looks like the Trinamool's election symbol.
CPM leader Brinda Karat says, "This is a violation of the minimum norms of the way a government should function -above narrow partisan politics as far as the use of public money is concered."
The Railway Ministry however, denies that the advertisement appearing in leading national dailies - including those with a substantial circulation in West Bengal - promote the Railway Minister's party symbol.
It is not just the advertisement that has the CPM crying foul. It seems that Mamata Banerjee's Railway Ministry largesse has been extended to many of those who have taken anti-CPM or anti-Buddhadeb government positions in the recent past.
The railway ministry recently honoured eminent writer and activist Mahasweta Devi, Suvaprasanna, Bivas Chakraborty, painter Jogen Chowdhury and others - all of whom stridently opposed the Buddhdeb government during the Nandigram episode.
Derek O'Brien and leading artist Shuvaprasanna have been appinpted as heads of two committees set up by Railway Ministey. Derek O'Brien is a former spokesman of the Trinamool Congress and Shuvaprasanna had been in the forefront of Singur and Nandigram.
Mamata's predecessors in the ministry too have been seen to be partial to their home states while announcing new trains or lines, but the maverick leader from West Bengal has made no secret of her ambition to unseat the Left from Writers Building after three decades.
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