May Day: Mamata makes her presence felt in absentia

May Day in Bengal is marked by a smattering of red flags. This year, it got an equal share of the tricolour Trinamool Congress flags.

Though Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stayed away from all May Day events in the state, her party and the government matched the Left Front step by step in celebrations.

While the information and cultural affairs department of the West Bengal government published quarter-page advertisements across publications with greetings from Banerjee to the working class of Bengal, the labour department organised events marking the day. At the factories in the industrial belts of Bengal, flags were hoisted by Railway Minister, Mukul Roy, at the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC) event in the morning.

Admitting that it was the working class that spearheaded the Paribartan in Bengal, the state labour minister Purnendu Bose said, “Majority of workers have voted for us. Hence the Chief Minister had asked us to take this day to honour them, as the state government should stand by them.”

At the official ceremony organized by the Labour Welfare Board, the government also distributed scholarships to the children of workers. Asked whether this was an effort by the Banerjee to project her party as a better Left than the Left, Bose, said, “May Day is not something celebrated by just the Communist party. It is a day for the workers. Since 1998, the trade union wings of our party are celebrating it. The only difference is, we are now in the government.”

The move is also considered to be a major step to woo the working class after facing ire from the Left parties for an alleged effort by the state to take away “the right to strike”.

The Trinamool Congress also distributed badges with pictures of those killed in the 1886 Haymarket massacre in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated globally as workers’ day.

In many ways, Banerjee’s policies have been a leaf out of the Left book. Whether it’s her poll plank, or foreign direct investment in retail and financial sector reforms, Banerjee is on the same page as the Left Front.

The Left Front, which always thought May Day was its domain, today cried foul. “Some extreme rightists are trying to hijack May Day celebrations,” Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) state president, Shyamal Chakraborty, said.

“She wants to occupy all the spaces, from chambers of commerce to the working class. This is just a camouflage,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed Salim, said.

For the Left Front, it was usual, with events in the city and across Bengal.