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HomeIndiaMamata Banerjee reaches out to PM Modi, one letter at a time

Mamata Banerjee reaches out to PM Modi, one letter at a time

In last 5 weeks, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has written 5 letters to Modi, a far cry from when she refused to meet him and acknowledge him as PM.

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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appears to have softened her stance against Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the Lok Sabha elections. In the last five weeks alone, Banerjee has written at least four letters to the prime minister on issues ranging from the “falling significance of NITI Ayog”, “expediting the process to change the name of West Bengal to Bangla”, to “protesting the Centre’s disinvestment policy”.

It’s a far cry from her rather acrimonious relationship with Modi. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee had refused to acknowledge Modi as the prime minister. She refused not only to meet him but also talk to him after Cyclone Fani, which made landfall in Odisha, affected parts of West Bengal in May.

The prime minister was in Bhubaneswar to hold a meeting on rescue and relief operations but Banerjee skipped the meeting. She also refused to return a number of calls from the Prime Minister’s Office. She later claimed that she would only talk to the new prime minister and had in fact avoided going to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony and didn’t attend the Niti Aayog meeting chaired by him.

Ever since the Lok Sabha results, however, she seems to have had a change of heart.


Also read: Copy-pasting the CPM model has been Mamata Banerjee’s great failure


The Mamata letters

The West Bengal chief minister sent out the first of her letters to the PM on 7 June, warning that the NITI Aayog was losing its significance. On 3 July, Mamata wrote to the PM again, this time urging him to speed up the process of changing the name of West Bengal to Bangla, according to sources in the government.

On 22 July, the chief minister wrote another letter requesting the prime minister to “stall and reverse” the process of corporatisation and privatisation of all ordnance factories. “I have been receiving reports regarding a decision that the Government of India has apparently been taking to corporatise all the ordnance factories including the ordnance factory board with its headquarters in Kolkata,” she wrote. “I am shocked and surprised to know this vital pillar of the country’s defence and this key industrial initiative of our land is now being contemplated to be subjected to a sudden exercise of de-governmentisation, for which there has been not even an iota of stakeholders consultations until now. At least the government of West Bengal has not received any inkling of discourses that have led to such inexplicable initiatives in the Government of India.”

On 25 July, citing a report released by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) that the 2019 poll expenditure had touched nearly Rs 60,000 crore, Banerjee said such election expenses had crossed all limits. “It is the ‘highest-ever’ poll expenditure in any part of the world,” she wrote. “Going by the current spending figures, it is apprehended that in the next 2024 General Elections the poll expenditure could cross Rs 1 lakh crore.”

“I urge you (PM Modi) to call an all-party meeting with the single agenda of public funding of elections in India with the objective of rooting out what has been called the mother of all corruptions,” she added. “I urge you (PM Modi) to call an all-party meeting with the single agenda of public funding of elections in India with the objective of rooting out what has been called the mother of all corruptions.”

The sources in the state government said that they are yet to receive any response from the central government.


Also read: Heat on Mamata govt as ED launches probe into disinvestment of Bengal dairy firm


BJP not impressed, says Mamata taking focus away from clashes

The BJP, however, isn’t impressed by the chief minister’s efforts, with the party maintaining that Mamata was looking to draw focus away from the “political clashes” and the “cut money protests” in the state.

BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta told ThePrint that the letters are also an attempt by Banerjee to maintain national relevance. “The Trinamool Congress is known for disruptive politics in Parliament and outside. Primarily, these are all tactics to divert attention from the ruthless political violence Bengal has been witnessing for long,” Dasgupta said. “Her national image has suffered heavily for the violence her party unleashed on the people.”

“After the results, she did not do any national tour. She did not even visit Delhi once. However, with these letters, she is now trying to recover her lost credibility and be relevant in national politics,” Dasgupta added. “She has been objecting to so many policies of the centre, but never attends any meeting chaired by the Prime Minister to speak about all these.”

‘Didi raising national issues’

Trinamool leaders, however, said Banerjee is “raising national issues that affect all and not just her state”.

“Mamata Banerjee is a responsible Opposition leader,” veteran Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy said. “She is raising issues for the people of the country. We are speaking on issues of national importance, and not just local issues.”

A Trinamool Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said the MPs were instructed to speak on all important issues and play the role of the prime Opposition displacing the Congress. According to him, Congress is in disarray and a void has been left in the Parliament and it is for the Trinamool Congress to fill this vacuum.

Banerjee’s party, with 18 Lok Sabha seats, is among the largest regional parties in the Lok Sabha.


Also read: Puja, football, Tollywood — BJP is beginning to grow roots in Mamata’s Bengal


 

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1 COMMENT

  1. Her new approach must have been triggered by the advice of prashant to divert the attention and dictate agenda, if not to build her narrative for 2021

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