Mamata Banerjee in Singur. (Pradip Sanyal)

Calcutta, Aug. 27: Mamata Banerjee shunned the all-party meeting to work out a compensation package to acquire land for a power project at Katwa in Burdwan.

Mamata Banerjee skipped the meeting of an Assembly standing committee where Nirupam Sen, the industries minister, disclosed the government’s agreement with the Tatas, the details of which her party has been pressing the government to reveal.

Mamata Banerjee turned away the truckers who have been stuck on the road because of her blockade of Durgapur Expressway.

All three incidents occurred today.

And, of course, Mamata Banerjee will not respond to the chief minister’s request for talks until 400 acres are returned to Singur farmers.

On available evidence, it is clear Mamata and her Trinamul Congress have decided to shut their door on established and institutional mechanisms for settling disagreements in a democratic system.

Partha Chatterjee, a Trinamul MLA, said: “We are against the takeover of both Singur and Katwa farmland. Our highway blockade is to register our protest against the government, though we feel sorry for the truckers and common people. But a dialogue is not possible with irrational people.”

“Irrational” is a word that is tied up with the situation inextricably but, seen from the opposite end, not in the way Chatterjee used it.

“All these developments point to the fact that Trinamul is against both dialogue and development. Mamata Banerjee wants to precipitate issues as she doesn’t want a solution,” said a CPM state committee member.

In Katwa, in the absence of Trinamul and its new-found ally, the SUCI, the so-called all-party meeting chaired by the district magistrate agreed on a compensation package for over 1,000 acres to be acquired for a power plant.

The Congress, the main opposition party in the region, and the BJP attended the meeting and were given the responsibility, along with the others, of talking to the 4,600 villagers whose land would be required.

By staying away from the meeting, Mamata has kept the option open to stage another Singur at Katwa, even though she will be the only one to oppose.

“Our party is against acquisition of farmland and hence we stayed away from the Katwa meeting,” said Mukul Roy, general secretary of Trinamul.

Mamata has been arguing that she is not against industrialisation but, if she is to be judged by her deeds, her protestations will be hard to accept.

In the meeting of the standing committee on commerce and industry, Trinamul drove home its chosen path of isolation when its member Tarak Bandopadhyay did not turn up.

The ostensible reason for dropping out was that Bandopadhyay was otherwise engaged in the protests at Singur and had not been informed about the meeting well in advance.

Since it was Chatterjee who had demanded a copy of the agreement with the Tatas, the party’s decision to give the meeting a miss will be read by critics as a signal that it is not really interested.

The truckers’ appeal to at least keep one flank of Durgapur Expressway open for a few hours so that goods carriers stranded since Sunday could pass was swatted away by Mamata who said her party was not responsible for the impasse.