West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday that Trinamool Congress will organize a series of nationwide protests against the Union government’s decision of disinvesting government organizations and PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings).

It has been reported that the party will hold the demonstrations in September and October. Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi are some of the few selected places for the protests. Mamata Banerjee announced this decision in a gathering at Kolkata. As reported by News18, she said “It is shameful that the Centre is going for the privatization and corporatization of government organizations. On October 18, we will launch a nationwide protest march that will be held in all the metro cities. We will continue to raise our voice until the government reverses its decision.”

The October 18 protest will see a march by TMC workers from Sealdah to Fairlie Place in Kolkata. Simultaneous protests in other cities will also be organized on the same day. According to the Chief Minister, On September 26-27, demonstrations will be organized in front of the Gun and Shell factory and at Coal India headquarters in the Kolkata.

The comments of the Chief Minister comes down when the Government of India can be seen heavily focusing on the privatization of public services. A bid to privatize sectors like Banking, Telecommunications and Defence is already underway.

Narendra Modi government had previously announced the merger of 10 Public sector Banks into 4 units. Now the total tally of such units has come down from 27 to just 12. Mamata Banerjee had written a letter to PM Modi on the unilateral decision of the BJP government. She said that State governments were not consulted in the process. She also said that the merger of banks would affect the developmental pace of the state.

A few days ago, Mamata Banerjee had come to Delhi to visit Amit Shah and PM Modi to discuss various issues. It was seen as a move to pacify the strained relations between the Centre and state.

The agenda of meeting with Amit Shah was the issue of NRC while with Narendra Modi, she is said to have discussed the matter of bank merger, BSNL salary issues and disinvestment of PSUs like Air India. She is also said to have discussed the long-pending demand of renaming the state to ‘Bangla’.

Previously, TMC has also announced to stage a protest against the publication of NRC.

TIW’s Take-

Mamata Banerjee has been a strong vocal critic of BJP government, either it was on Article 370 abrogation or implementation of NRC. However, her meeting with the Union leaders was seen as an “out of blue” move, since she had skipped many meetings of Central ministries also.

Now, the announcement of protest is likely to escalate the tensions between the Union and West Bengal government. The recent attack on Babul Supriyo has already led to the creation of a highly charged political environment in West Bengal. The Union Minister was heckled at Jadavpur University and the Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had to come to his rescue.