PM calls for Team India, Mamata sings along

GROWING BONHOMIE Centre and states should work shoulder to shoulder and project an image of Team India abroad, says Modi during his Bengal visit

BURNPUR (BURDWAN): Prime MinisterNarendraModionSunday branded cooperative federalism as Team India to underscore the need for better Centre-state relations to take the country forward.

The Centre and states should work shoulder to shoulder and project an image of Team India abroad, he said at a public meeting after inaugurating the `16,000-crore IISCO steel plant modernisation project at Burnpur with West Bengal chief minister and his bitterest critic, Mamata Banerjee, by his side.

“Without Team India, Hindustan cannot progress. The prime minister and chief minister form a team. Country comes before (political) party, whatever party it is,” he said.

“After Independence, the Centre never used to give value to the state. I know this because I was also a chief minister … The country cannot progress without Team India. Now the country will move on the shoulders of 30 states by working together.”

The comments were set against decades of acrimony between Banerjee and Modi — more recently for the NDA government’s push for the controversial land bill and the BJP’s drive to unseat the Trinamool Congress in its backyard.

But the bitterness appeared to have mellowed a bit as a tone of cooperation was heard on Saturday evening by the two leaders at an auditorium in Kolkata. On Sunday, they carried forward from where they left.

“Unity is our strength. The Centre and the state will work together. If India develops, so does Bengal,” said Banerjee, abandoning her combative stand against the Modi government.

Modi highlighted his government’s initiative to retain only 38% of the pool of resources and transfer 62% to the states in accordance with the 14 Finance Commission’s recommendations. “Bengal will progress and help India move ahead.”

The rival CPI(M) called Banerjee’s presence at Burnpur a hypocrisy because she had allegedly launched an agitation in 2007 to prevent the acquisition of land for the expansion project.