ITCHING FOR A FIGHT

WHILE ADDRESSING his maiden rally in Kolkata in February, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had launched strident attacks against the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), but he spared the Mamata Banerjee government.

In fact, Mr Modi tried to sell the idea of “Didi in Bengal and Modi in Delhi” to the people. He pointed out that if such a scenario emerged after Lok Sabha polls, then the people of Bengal would have laddoos in both hands. However, Ms Banerjee was not amused. Mr Modi’s confectionary analogy clearly left a bitter taste in her mouth because she feared that praise from Mr Modi may turn her Muslim votebank against her.

An important Muslim cleric demanded that Ms Banerjee target Mr Modi and the BJP more aggressively and unequivocally. A rattled Mamata intensified her attacks against BJP. Earlier she said people did not like “danga mukh (face of riots)”. Now she has started saying a person who foments communal violence could never become India’s Prime Minister.

When Mr Modi arrived in Siliguri on a second visit to the state on Thursday, he too was in a belligerent mood. Adopting a tit-for-tat, he called paribartan in the state a farce and claimed that Ms Banerjee has betrayed the people. He accused her of playing votebank politics and blamed her party for the Saradha chit fund scam. Sources close to Ms Banerjee said that she was elated by Mr Modi’s diatribe against her. “Didi is confident that now her Muslim votes are consolidated,” he said. On wonders if iconic Urdu poet Ghalib envisaged such a situation when he said, Gaaliyan kha ke be-maza na hua (Even expletives did not leave a bad taste in the mouth)”.