This comes at a time when there is significant improvement in the ties between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Sources said senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram met Mamata at the West Bengal state secretariat on Thursday.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at an INDIA bloc meeting.
(Express file photo) West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at an INDIA bloc meeting.
Sources said the West Bengal CM even told Chidambaram that she expected Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi.
Upbeat after the election results, a resurgent Opposition is coordinating its moves to mount pressure on the BJP-led NDA government to keep in abeyance the three laws that have been enacted to replace the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Evidence Act. The parties are also gearing up to corner the government on the NEET and UGC-NET controversies next week as the 18th Lok Sabha meets for the first time.
Days after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting him to keep in abeyance the three laws that will come into effect from July 1, his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday asking him to postpone the implementation of new criminal laws and to place them on the floor of Parliament for “fresh deliberation and scrutiny”. She has also urged Modi to “halt and review the whole subject anew”.
This comes at a time when there is significant improvement in the ties between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Sources said senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram met Mamata at the West Bengal state secretariat on Thursday. Although members of the INDIA bloc, the TMC and the Congress contested against each other in the recently held Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.
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With West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury no longer the Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, sources in the TMC said the floor coordination between the two parties in Parliament would improve. A fierce Mamata critic, Chowdhury lost the elections this time to the TMC in his once-stronghold Baharampur. The TMC held him singularly responsible for pushing the Congress into embracing the Left and not letting a seat-sharing arrangement with it materialise in Bengal.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at an INDIA bloc meeting. (Express file photo) West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at an INDIA bloc meeting. (Express file photo)
Sources said Mamata who had once predicted that the Congress might not even win 40 seats appeared conciliatory and warm towards the Congress during her meeting with Chidambaram. Sources said the West Bengal CM even told Chidambaram that she expected Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi. Emphasising the need for the INDIA parties to remain united to fight the BJP tooth and nail, Mamata is learnt to have told the senior Congress leader that she and the other INDIA bloc leaders would be even ready to campaign for Priyanka in Wayanad if the Congress desired.
Sources in the Opposition camp said the parties in the INDIA alliance had exchanged views on the government’s decision not to appoint senior Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh as the pro-tem Speaker. There will also be coordination to raise issues such as the NEET and UGC-NET controversies and the train accident in West Bengal, besides mounting pressure on the government to suspend the implementation of the new criminal laws.
In her letter to the PM, Mamata wrote, “I write to you with grave concern regarding the impending – implementation of three crucial laws, namely The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNA) 2023, The Bharatiya Sakhsya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023, and The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanita (BNSS) 2023. If you kindly recall, on the 20th of December last year, the outgoing Government of yours had passed these three critical Bills unilaterally, and with absolutely no debate. That day, almost one hundred members of the Lok Sabha had been suspended and a total 146 MPs of both Houses were thrown out of the Parliament. The Bills were passed in an authoritarian manner in that dark hour of democracy. Matter deserves review now.”
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The CM urged Modi to consider “at least a deferment of the implementation date”, citing “ethical and practical” reasons.
“Ethically, I believe that it would be in the fitness of things to place these significant legislative changes before the newly elected Parliament for fresh deliberation and scrutiny. Given the wide-ranging reservations expressed in the public domain regarding the hurriedly passed new laws, fresh Parliamentary review of these attempts would demonstrate a commitment to democratic principles and foster greater transparency and accountability in the legislative process,” read the letter.
“This approach would afford the newly elected people’s representatives the opportunity to thoroughly examine the proposed reforms, address concerns raised by various stakeholders, and ensure that the laws reflect the collective will and aspirations of the citizenry. Such renewed parliamentary oversight/mandate would reinforce public confidence in the legislative process and enhance the legitimacy of the legal reforms,” Mamata wrote.
“Secondly, practically, the request for postponement stems from a pragmatic assessment of the challenges and preparatory work required for a smooth transition, particularly concerning the training of law enforcement personnel and judicial officers. Any far-reaching legal change requires meticulous groundwork beforehand to ensure effective enforcement and administration and we do not have any reason to avert such homework,” she told the PM in the letter.
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Mamata alleged in the letter that the Union Ministry of Law and Justice did not involve the state government when it organised a conference in Kolkata on the topic on June 16. “This is highly objectionable and this should have been organized by the State Government as law & order is a State subject,” she wrote. “We believe that this postponement will enable a renewed Parliamentary review/mandate, reinforce public trust in the legal system, and uphold the rule of law in our beloved country.”
Last November, in a dissent note to the three criminal law amendment bills, a group of Opposition MPs, including Chidambaram and the TMC’s Derek O’Brien and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, called them an exercise in renumbering the laws and protested their rechristening in Sanskritised Hindi, retention of colonial spirit and lack of public consultation. While Chidambaram called them a “copy and paste” job, O’Brien suggested they are an “election stunt”.
