Trinamul wants action on footwear row

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Trouble brews within the Trinamul Congress over the advertisement showing Union railway minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee promoting a brand of hawai chappal in a Bengali daily. A section of Trinamul leaders now want the party to “initiate action” against the newspaper along with the footwear company. This particular section also wants the Trinamul chief to question the owner of the paper, a Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP, for publishing the advertisement “without informing her”.

A Trinamul functionary in Delhi said: “Realising that Ms Banerjee is all set to come to power in West Bengal, a section is trying to exploit her name for obvious reasons.” He said that the party “must come down hard on these people, who are trying to damage her image.”
The FIR lodged against the company by the railway ministry stated that the advertisement was published “without prior knowledge and permission of the hon’ble Union minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, and clearly with the motive of pecuniary gain by Ajanta Hawai and criminal intention of exploiting the image and official position of the hon’ble minister.”
Questions were also being raised over lodging of the police complaint in Delhi instead of Kolkata. The ADG (public relations), railways, Mr Anil Saxena, was asked why the FIR was lodged in Delhi and not in Kolkata, since the advertisement was published in a Bengali daily from Kolkata. Mr Saxena was also asked on whether the ministry intends to question the newspaper for publishing the advertisement without informing the minister. Incidentally, the footwear company has gone on record denying its involvement in publishing the advertisement. Mr Saxena, who said he has to “consult authorities authorities concerned in the railways before answering the queries”, later said: “I have been told, we have nothing more to add.”
The railway ministry, which claimed that it is not Ms Banerjee, but the “proprietor of the mischief who used her photo for advertisement without her consent, needs to be in trouble,” however, went completely silent on how the advertisement was published. The ministry has also not ordered any inquiry into the matter. Reacting to reports that a probe has been ordered into the issue, Mr Saxena stated: “It is factually incorrect to state that the railway ministry has ordered an enquiry to be conducted by Railway Board member secretary Shivaji Rakshit.”
Sources disclosed that immediately after the ad was brought to the notice of Ms Banerjee, she asked the ministry to take action. The railways and the Trinamul leader had apprehended that the matter could get her into a controversy. However, despite lodging the FIR on June 21, the ministry spokesman, who “is easily accessible and available”, did not reveal it to the media till the reporters went asking a day after it was published. This lack of communication has also apparently upset the railway minister, who “believes in total transparency,” a Trinamul leader said.
The Trinamul functionaries are mounting pressure on Ms Banerjee to take action against the publication and the footwear company, so that a “signal is sent across”. Some of the functionaries wondered why she was “not informed of the particular advertisement”, which has embarrassed her and the party, since the newspaper was being run by a Trinamul MP.