Protocol

It’s controversy hovering around acquisition of land that has given Mamata a secured and firm land to stand on in politics. So Mamata can’t afford to let any opportunity on land issue that might pay her dividend go wasted. Hence after spectacular successes in Singer and Nandigram she turned her attention to Rajarhat township, now christened Jyoti Basu Nagar.The township is based on vast tract of land. So it’s not difficult to allege even off the cuff that at this township in many cases land was acquired forcefully or by other dubious means as in Singer or Nandigram.There might be many takers of such arbitrary allegations and the administration could be put on the spot. But Mamata’s allegations were strongly challenged by the housing minister Goutam Dev himself and refuted many of them with relevant documents. He also asked Mamata to answer some of his questions and kept the ball rolling in her court. Here happened a very interesting thing that people never came across in our state.Mamata refused to answer Goutam’s queries on the ground that she belongs to ‘ grade’ that is superior to his in administration. Perhaps now on TMC supremo would ask his men to strictly follow ‘gradation’ system introduced by her while giving answer to some one in ruling party or even in her ally. Mercifully, this newly initiated protocol won’t work in direct conversation between the ruling and opposition parties as they’re not on speaking terms with each other. It’ll come into effect only in answering allegations and counter allegations only. For cadres, however, it’s hand that speaks more than tongue.