By SNM Abdi
Mamata Banerjee is not going to lay down her arms today at 1 pm sharp before Narendra Modi. There's not going to be any surrender ceremony when the West Bengal Chief Minister calls on the Prime Minister because Modi is not half as powerful as some might think he is – and Mamata, with 30 stitches on her head and 45 MPs in her pocket, is no pushover.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (left) and PM Narendra Modi.
In fact, expect a massive show of strength by Mamata who will be accompanied by a jumbo delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs, ministers and bureaucrats. Today’s meeting is the outcome of an appointment the CM sought with the PM to present West Bengal’s case for a moratorium on interest for central loans bleeding the state white.
Mamata’s principal argument is that the loans were incurred by a profligate communist regime from whom Trinamool wrested power in 2011 but is being made to pay for its fiscal sins.
“We are bearing a burden for which we are not responsible. If the meeting with PM fails, the party will decide on the future course of action. Obviously, there are remedial steps. But we will cross the bridge when we come to it," said Trinamool leader and lawmaker Sougato Roy whose command over English is the envy of his peers.
Today’s meeting is important not because of its agenda but because it is Mamata’s first with Modi, making her the last CM to call on the new PM. She tore into Modi during the election campaign and didn’t bother to reach out to him even after his landslide victory. Other opposition CMs queued up to meet Modi after he took charge of the nation, but not Mamata. She turned down two specific invitations – one to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony and the other to discuss the scope and formation of Niti Aayog – underlining an ominous standoff.
While campaigning, Mamata declared that Modi deserved to be dragged to jail with a rope around his waist for his sectarian remarks. She also called him Danga Babu, or Mr Riot. She branded him a donkey when he got his facts about the Matua community wrong. She was unsparing even after he became the PM, remarking that “India under Modi was worse than Emergency” and that a “man who can’t take care of his wife can’t take care of millions of women."
Taking the cue from Mamata, her MPs too trained their guns on the PM. Kalyan Banerjee, who is accompanying Mamata today, made remarks for which he had to offer an unconditional apology in Parliament before the issue was closed.
So are the days of confrontation over? I’m told that as soon as today’s formal meeting gets over, there will be an informal one-on-one so that Modi and Mamata can speak their heart out without a single aide around.
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There is no denying that Mamata badly needs central funds which Modi can easily release if he wishes to help Bengal tide over a looming financial crisis. And what’s more, Modi can rein in the CBI and BJP snapping at Mamata’s heels ever since the Saradha scam broke out resulting in the interrogation or arrest of several Trinamool heavyweights considered close to her.
Modi might not be averse to getting off his high horse and talking politely to Mamata if she is accommodating. The personal humiliation in the Delhi assembly elections and the flak he is drawing for sharing power with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir have softened up Modi to a great extent, not to speak of his government’s first defeat in Parliament when a united Opposition succeeded in having its amendments to the President’s address carried after the debate in the Rajya Sabha just the other day.
There is more grief in store for Modi’s government in the Rajya Sabha if opposition unity remains intact. A big question mark hangs over the fate of five ordinances. In the case of Land Acquisition Bill, even BJP allies like Shiv Sena, Lok Janshakti Party and Shiromani Akali Dal are on the warpath, badly denting Modi’s once invincible image.
Foreign policy complications are also taking their toll. China’s belligerence over Arunachal Pradesh despite Modi rolling out the red carpet for Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad, resumption of talks with Pakistan on Islamabad’s terms under US pressure, and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe threat to shoot Indian fishermen if they intruded into Lankan territorial waters barely a few days before Modi’s state visit, are taking the sheen off Modi.
Mamata can, in fact, help Modi pull off a diplomatic coup in Bangladesh. She has already communicated to the PM in writing her stand on the contentious Teesta treaty after discussing the subject threadbare with Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh last month. Mamata has been blocking the river-water sharing pact since 2011 which left Manmohan Singh in a very awkward and uncomfortable position.
But if Mamata falls in line, Modi can sign the Teesta accord as early as next month and hold the trophy aloft for the world to see and hail him as a great statesman. So today’s meeting has international ramifications too.
SNM Abdi is former Deputy Editor of Outlook and Executive Editor of Daily Sun, Dhaka.
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