Attacking options

An unintended consequence of a few activists manhandling West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra outside New Delhi's Yojana Bhavan on Tuesday was the cancellation of the much-anticipated meeting between the state's chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the media scheduled for yesterday at the state guest house. The "press meet" had acquired significance because of the manner in which Banerjee had converted the attack against her ministerial colleague into a counter-attack against the Union government as also the Left parties. The official reason for the cancellation was that the chief minister was unwell, requiring her to return to Kolkata. Banerjee had a meeting with the Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday, in which the state's demand for a 17 per cent increase in its annual Plan outlay was granted. Cynics are wondering if conceding the state's demand for an increase in Plan outlay in its entirety had anything to do with the attack on Mitra before the meeting. Did the Centre soften after the attack? Or are the Centre's relations with Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in anyway on the mend?