CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member and Lok Sabha MP, Mohd. Salim has criticized the one-to-one interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and termed it as “political opportunism”.
“The meeting and sharing of stage by the two leaders is the final scene of the drama which their respective parties had played since last year’s Lok Sabha polls to fool the people of this state,” Md. Salim, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member said on May 11. The religious card played by both the parties only “complimented and supplemented” their brand of politics in Bengal, Salim added.
“The Prime Minister and the Chief Minister were trying to fool people by attacking each other to show their differences…. Not only are they natural allies because of past relations of Trinamul and the BJP but they have a lot of similarities in terms of their politics and their dictatorial approach. Now they need each other to pursue their respective vested interests,” said Salim.
The relationship between Modi and Mamata plumbed the depths last year when the Chief Minister refused to attend several meetings called by the Prime Minister. Modi too, during his election campaign in Bengal last year, had criticised the Trinamool Congress government in the context of the multi-crore Saradha scam, promising to book the guilty.
“This meeting is nothing but political bonhomie between the two as the TMC needs the help of the Union government to save itself from the clutches of CBI in the Saradha scam and BJP needs the support of TMC MPs in the Rajya Sabha to pass various anti-people bills,” Salim explained.