Podium politics

The sub-plot of Bengal politics is hard to subsume under the main plot of Indian national politics. In keeping with the narrative defiance of regional politics,and exceeding the same in several respects,West Bengals political narrative with its predictable as well as surprising twists and turns keeps itself in national headlines as a thing in itself. The mutual antipathy between Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool chief and Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee,whom some are calling CM-in-waiting,competes with the CPM-Trinamool hostility for space and prominence so much so that its pointless to look for the one with the uglier,pettier attitude.

Mamata Banerjee did not violate protocol by not inviting Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to the foundation-laying ceremony of a new Metro project in Kolkata,where the president,state governor,Union finance minister and other officials were present. But it did violate a code of courtesy. After all,the project is in the state capital and its a petty personalisation of politics to keep the states most important political functionary out of it. Did someone complain about Banerjee treating the railways as her fiefdom? Well,she got the chance again since the Kolkata Metro,the oldest in the country,is also the only Metro under the Union railways usually cited as the reason for its current state.

Bhattacharjee,the day after,expectedly refused to attend the Raj Bhavan dinner in honour of the president,sulking at the snub the day before. But this too is churlish on the part of the CM,who after all has shown that he cannot drop Banerjee from the political-personal equation. This antipathy has a long history but remains rather inexplicable,since Banerjee enjoyed a pretty decent relationship with Jyoti Basu in the patriarchs last years. Perhaps they individually,and separately,recognise that without mocking or insulting the other,and seen to be doing so,they would both weaken their self-definitions.