Congress walks out as Manas Bhunia made PAC chief

In an unprecedented move, Congress members on Monday staged a walk-out, along with the Left counterparts from the House, protesting the appointment of senior Congress MLA Manas Bhunia as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Assembly following his closed-door meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the issuance of an arrest warrant against him.

When Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee announced Mr Bhunia’s name as PAC chairman in the House, Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan was stunned into disbelief because only a couple of hours ago he had himself proposed the name of Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty as PAC chairman to the Speaker.

Mr Mannan protested the Speaker’s decision as Mr Bhunia left the House. Mr Banerjee pointed out that the PAC chairman’s post was, after all, given to the main Opposition party. He also added that Mr Chakraborty, a CPI(M) MLA, was made the head of a standing committee. As the Congress and Left MLAs walked out, Mr Bhunia left the Assembly, refusing to comment.

Congress MLAs later discussed the ramifications of Mr Bhunia’s appointment in an emergency meeting. An upset Mr Mannan said, “The decision is shameful and the chief minister’s involvement in this is unfortunate. We do not accept it. I will inform our party’s central leadeship.” Mr Chakraborty alleged that the decision was unprecedented. “It is an ominous sign for democracy,” he claimed. After walking out of the House with the Left MLAs over the guillotining of several budget proposals, Mr Mannan earlier announced that the Congress had decided to gift the post to Mr Chakraborty to further consolidate its alliance with the Left Front. He took the decision after getting party president Sonia Gandhi’s nod whom he met in Delhi on Sunday.

The Left Front welcomed the Congress’ decision. But drama unfolded after Mr Bhunia met the chief minister in her chamber for 20 minutes. He, however, denied he met the CM regarding his arrest warrant or any other personal purpose. According to him, as a public representative he was free to meet her.

“My lawyer has advised me to not speak on the arrest warrant because it is a sub-judice matter,” he said later.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury alleged that the decision to reward Mr Bhunia was aimed at dividing the Congress Legislature Party and also to drive a wedge between the Congress and the Left.

Ironically, shortly before Dr Bhuniya’s appointment, Mr Mannan had expressed solidarity with him and had threatened to launch a statewide agitation if the arrest warrant against him was not withdrawn. However, the bonhomie and sympathy evaporated when Mr Mannan in his meeting with the chief minister voiced his displeasure over the issuance of warrant against Dr Bhuniya.

“She said she was not responsible for it and claimed it was issued on the basis of the FIR lodged by the victim’s family. It was then that she said that she had appointed him PAC chief,” he said. Mr Mannan said the people had voted for the Congress to fight against TMC. “The people will judge him if some one betrays their trust,” he added.