Mamata Banerjee urges UPA government to aid West Bengal's debt restructuring

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged the Congress-led UPA government to take a sympathetic view of her request to restructure the eastern state's debt while warning that the Centre's survival till 2014 depended on how it dealt with allies.

"After the Congress, the Trinamool (Congress) is the largest party in the UPA-II. We want the UPA-II to last its full term, but we must be given respect," Banerjee said in an interview on Saturday. This was her first interaction with national media after a series of headline-grabbing incidents, including a walkout from a live show on television channel CNN-IBN and the arrest of a professor for forwarding a cartoon, which have earned her dollops of negative media coverage.

Banerjee declined comment on the presidential elections, saying it was up to the Congress to decide who it wanted to pick as its nominee. "Let us resist speculation. Whom the Congress party will name is its internal matter. Let us be patient," the Trinamool leader said.

Congress also to blame for debt

In the past, Banerjee has refused to endorse Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who hails from her state and is widely regarded as a strong contender to be the next occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan. The theme of respect, or the lack of it, from the Congressled government at the Centre resonated throughout the interview.

“We have asked them (on a debt package) many times, but we are not beggars. No one from Bengal will go (to Delhi) with a begging bowl. We have a strong case,” she said.

Banerjee said the Congress government had to assume some responsibility for Bengal’s debt as it repeatedly allowed the Left Front government to borrow more even though the state had not passed the Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management Act, under which states are legally bound to cut fiscal deficit. Banerjee has seen a precipitate decline in her standing among the middle classes in urban areas, according to experts.