Mamata and Nitish

Oct. 14: When railway minister Dinesh Trivedi rang Nitish Kumar on Wednesday to request he step in and end the rail roko at Kishanganj, the Bihar chief minister told him a Trinamul minister had come over from Bengal to join the blockade and had prevented a quick resolution.

Bengal mass education minister Abdul Karim Chowdhury’s participation was surprising not just because he is a cabinet minister from a different state — “does this entitle us to go and agitate in Singur,” a Bihar minister asked — but also because Mamata has recently spoken out against disruptive agitations that inconvenience the public. The Bihar JD(U) leaders were baffled by Chowdhury’s participation in view of the excellent relations between Nitish and Mamata.

Chowdhury received a tongue-lashing from chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who sent him back to the agitation site in Kishanganj late in the night to ensure the blockade was lifted.

The tracks sit-in had cut off services to north Bengal and the Northeast for over 14 hours, holding up thousands of passengers, including Trivedi, who had accompanied Mamata to north Bengal and was to return on the Darjeeling Mail.

According to a source close to Nitish, the chief minister told Trivedi that “his (Trivedi’s) men were actively involved in the agitation and created problems, refusing to accept measures to lift the blockade”.

The source said Chowdhury had brought in 1,000 supporters and addressed the dharna, and had opposed a suggestion from the agitation’s local leaders to call it off early.

JD(U) leaders claimed it was a ploy to force the Bihar police to fire on the crowd. The Nitish government is still reeling from the shock of the Forbesganj police firing that killed four people from the minority community.

Apart from Chowdhury, who is the Islampur MLA, three other Bengal politicians from North Dinajpur district had joined the blockade, held to protest the delay in opening a campus of Aligarh Muslim University in Kishanganj.

The three others were Raiganj MP Deepa Das Munshi, Goalpokhar MLA Ghulam Rabbani (both from the Congress) and the Forward Bloc MLA from Chakulia, Ali Imran Ramz. These political opponents shared the dais apparently because a sizeable section of Muslim students in their areas, all close to Kishanganj, wanted an AMU campus there.

“Mamatadi’s phone came around 9.30pm and for over 10 minutes, she kept scolding me for participating in a blockade outside the state,” Chowdhury admitted to The Telegraph over the phone from Islampur this evening.

“She expressed her anger and asked me to revisit the spot to ensure the blockade was lifted.”

Chowdhury, who had left Kishanganj at 5.30pm, went back around 10.15 and stayed there till 11.30 till the blockade was lifted.

A Trinamul general secretary said Mamata was angry also because the minister had shared the dais with her archrival Dipa, forgetting how she had fielded an Independent at Islampur to try and defeat Chowdhury.

Chowdhury said Dipa was already on the dais when he arrived to address the gathering. “I had to listen to her as it would not have been proper to walk out: that would have exposed the ugly side of our politics before our neighbours in Bihar.”

He said he had been invited by Kishanganj Congress MP Maulana Asrarul Haque. “I reached Kishangaj around 12.30pm. Over 5,000 people had already assembled and blocked the national highway and the adjoining tracks. I was there till 5.30pm. I believe that the demand for an AMU campus is legitimate.”

On his return, the minister received a call from Trinamul general secretary and junior Union minister Mukul Roy, who told him Mamata wanted to speak to him.

Rabbani and Bloc MLA Ramz today rued that the Kishanganj railway police had named them but not Chowdhury in the FIR.

“Karimsaheb was present there for over five hours.... We don’t know why only the two of us have been targeted,” Ramz said.

Kishanganj district magistrate Sandeep Kumar R. Pudakalkatti confirmed the presence of Chowdhury and Rabbani at his meeting with the blockade leaders.

“First, the minister addressed the people at the dharna. Later, he attended the meeting,” Pudakalkatti said.

He explained that the state government had acquired the land for the AMU campus in 2010 but the university wanted a continuous stretch rather than a fragmented one.

Local MP Haque led the agitation, joined in by all known Nitish baiters, including the leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.