Trinamool Congress makes first move to end deadlock

The Trinamool Congress (TC) today made its first move to find a solution to the ongoing blockade by the party at Tata’s Singur factory when senior party leader and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee said the government should send a letter stating that it accepted “in principle” that land could be returned to those unwilling farmers who had not accepted compensation.

This is for the first time that a senior TC leader has come out with a statement, indicating a draft of a letter that the government could send to the TC leader Mamata Banerjee at her protest platform at Singur in an effort to end the deadlock at Singur.

It was not clear if the government will actually respond, because Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has avoided public contact ever since the CPM reprimanded his speaking out against bandhs and gheraos on August 29, and Commerce and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen had warned that the government could take legal steps to clear National Highway 2 on which TC was staging its dharna. Sen’s move was seen as a toughening of the government stand against the TC protest which had led to Tata Motors workers staying away from work on August 29 and 30.

TC had also dug in its heels by announcing today that its planned political rally in Kolkata on September 1 will now be held in Singur instead to drum up support for its programme.