Abhishek Banerjee withdrew his sit-in demonstration near Raj Bhavan on Monday evening after a meeting with governor C.V. Ananda Bose who purportedly said not more than 24 hours were needed for him to sort out the issue of pending wages of MGNREGS workers in Bengal.
The withdrawal of the dharna was conditional as the national general secretary of the Trinamul Congress gave the BJP-led Centre time till October 31 to suitably respond to his demands, failing which there would be a wider and more intense agitation that would essentially be a fight-to-the-finish led by the chief minister herself.
“We told him (Bose) to take two-three weeks, then let us know. Speak to the Centre, demand to know, as the governor of the state. He heard us out,” said the Diamond Harbour MP.
“We have been waiting for two years and have been courteous… but we are running out of both patience and courtesy,” he added in his speech from the dharna dais, which he occupied since Thursday evening. “If you (the Centre) are not able to give us a suitable response, the movement we will launch then, we will simply not budge from.”
Abhishek led a 30-member Trinamul delegation — comprising deprived beneficiaries of central schemes and senior elected representatives and leaders — to Raj Bhavan to meet Bose for around 20 minutes from around 4pm. The MP praised the governor for his approach to the negotiations and thanked him for not wasting time and flying out to Delhi within hours to take up the matter with the Centre.
“We gave him two-three weeks, but the governor was so nice about this, he promised me that he wouldn’t take more than 24 hours, and left for Delhi. I expressed my profound gratitude. I am really rooting for a breakthrough by his intervention. I do hope he will speak properly to the Centre and resolve the crisis,” said Abhishek in a marked departure from the bitter exchanges between the state’s ruling dispensation and Raj Bhavan.
In a memorandum submitted to Bose, Trinamul raised three questions: whether or not over 21 lakh people from Bengal who worked under the MGNREGS in 2021-22 are yet to be compensated for their work; under what law of the land are their wages being withheld; and should they not, under statutory provisions of the scheme, also receive daily compensatory interest of 0.05 per cent (18.25 per cent annually) from after two weeks of non-payment wages.
“The governor said the demands are just and legitimate, and that he will take it up with the Centre right away…. He treated us really well, which we must thank him for,” added Abhishek, who was critical of Bose in all his other addresses at the dharna.
The 35-year-old leader said he was keen to carry on with the sit-in demonstration, for at least another day, but senior leaders right up to the chief minister advised against it.
“I spoke to everyone, including our supreme leader. She said since the governor has done us this courtesy, we should, as people of Bengal, withdraw this agitation as a counter-gesture of courtesy,” said Abhishek.
He went on to assert that if the Centre refused to release the funds due to Bengal, especially under the MGNREGS and Awas Yojana, the Trinamul regime here would find ways to get the deprived masses their money.
“I am giving the Centre time till October 31, the end of the Durga Puja-Lakshmi Puja phase of the festivities. Yes, we are the ones who will be setting the deadlines hereafter, not you (the saffron regime) any longer,” he added. “If we begin from November 1 again, we will continue till all the money due to deprived beneficiaries of Bengal reaches them. We will not stop again, and it will be under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership.”
He underscored the fact that he solely led the protest programmes in Delhi and Calcutta this month, on account of the forced absence of his aunt on medical grounds.
“None of this was my credit, only the people’s… I humbly thank every participant for their support,” said Abhishek.
“She (Mamata) wasn’t even here, and we shook the nine-year Narendra Modi government to the core in just seven days…. They are scared. Their stability is clearly gone. The body language of the BJP leaders is telling,” he added. “When she hits the streets, like with one lakh people in Delhi in the next two months…. This was only a trailer. The film remains to be shown.”
