WB jute crisis: BJP MP summoned to Delhi to meet Union Textile Minister

Speculation rife that the former TMC MP, who jumped ship to join the BJP in 2019, may once again be warming up to TMC

Amidst the ongoing crisis in the West Bengal jute industry, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Arjun Singh was on Saturday summoned to New Delhi and he is likely to meet Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal.  Mr. Singh has been blaming the Centre and the Office of Jute Commissioner for the plight of thousands of workers of the State’s jute mills. Over a dozen of jute mills have closed in the State in the past few months.

On Friday, the Barrackpore BJP MP wrote letters to chief ministers of jute-producing and manufacturing states including State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “I am requesting you to interfere in this matter with the Union Ministry of Textiles for saving millions of jute farmers, jute workers and jute industry,” the BJP MP wrote in a letter to the State’s Chief Minister. 

Earlier this week, the State BJP vice president had threatened to hit the streets and protest against the Office of Jute Commissioner of India if the issue was not sorted out. According to the Barrackpore MP, the unavailability of raw material and the price fixed on raw jute by JCO is compounding the crisis. 

West Bengal has about 60 jute mills and 20 of the mills are located in Barrackpore subdivision of the State’s North 24 Parganas district. Before leaving for Delhi, Mr. Singh said that he had received a call from the office of Union Textile Minister. The MP said that the issue of jute was a matter of life and death for him and asked that if the jute industry suffered because of the Centre’s policies, then why would the people of the region (Barrackpore) continue to support the BJP?

Meanwhile, political circles in the State are rife with speculations that the BJP MP’s recent remarks may have something more to do than the crisis in the jute industry.  A section of people across different political parties feel that Arjun Singh is trying to warm up to the Trinamool Congress. Mr. Singh was with the TMC till 2019 before he joined the BJP and contested and won the Barrackpore seat.

A section of Trinamool Congress leadership, including Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen who has been associated with the party’s trade union wing, has already started welcoming the BJP MP’s change of stand. Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC), the labour arm of Trinamool Congress, has announced protests against the Office of Jute Commissioner after the BJP MP’s utterances.