After leaving the ruling UPA floor managers in the Parliament red-faced by voting against the Medical Council of India (Amendment) Bill, the Trinamul Congress MPs appear to be indulging in blame game, highlighting the poor coordination among themselves. A section of the TMC leaders are blaming two Lok Sabha MPs with medical backgrounds for having influenced the decision to vote against the bill.
Amidst soul searching apparently going on within the TMC despite being part of the UPA, party MPs Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Dr Ratna De Nag have internally come under veiled attack for giving more importance to their profession than their role as parliamentarians.
“There was not much of an issue in the MCI Bill for the party to have voted against it in the Lok Sabha. It was rather lack of coordination and arriving at a common view point on the bill. In fact, we as parliamentarians should rise above our professional background,” said a senior TMC member, who is a minister in the UPA government.
However, Dr Dastidar and Dr Nag could not be contacted for their reactions. It has been learnt that the TMC’s move to vote against the bill was actually based on technical grounds, which included purported provision to ensure parity between the MBBS doctors and Ayurvedic practioners and issue of elections. Sources said that few MPs in an informal meeting of the TMC raised voice of dissent against the party’s decision to vote against the bill.
Sources said that the TMC parliamentary party leader Sudeep Bandyopadhyay was taken aback when he heard that some of the party MPs wanted to oppose the bill.
Though Ms Banerjee had apparently not given any direction to the party leaders, senior leaders went by, sources said, the views of Dr Dastidar and Dr Nag, as they are considered close to the TMC supremo.
Amidst the soul searching going on within a section of TMC leaders, sources said there is a view that “Ms Banerjee is not getting the right feedback.”