Politics
Why Centre Was Right In Denying Permission To Mamata Banerjee’s Visit To Rome
Jaideep Mazumdar
Sep 27, 2021, 03:47 PM | Updated 03:44 PM IST
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Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and her supporters, have been fuming at the Union Government for denying permission to her to travel to Rome to attend a conference whose credentials are opaque.
Banerjee was invited by a Catholic organisation--Community of Sant'Egidio--to address an event titled ‘Peoples as Brothers, Future For Earth’ slated for October 6 and 7.
The president of the organisation--Professor Marco Impagliazzo, who specialises in the history of the Catholic Church and teaches at University of Roma Tre--had invited Banerjee to the conference soon after the Trinamool’s thumping win in the Assembly polls. Impagliazzo’s invitation letter to Banerjee was quite unusual. It read:
First of all I would like to express my personal congratulations on your significant election and for the important work for social justice, for the development of your country and, therefore, for peace, which you have been doing for over ten years now. Allow me to tell you that I feel your commitment and your generous battles in favour of the weakest and most disadvantaged, very close to my sensitivity and to the work of the Community of Sant' Egidio in Rome and in all world.
Trinamool leaders who crowed over this invitation as ‘proof’ of ‘global recognition’ for their leader, claimed that the other invitees to the event were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Pope Francis, and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (Egypt) Ahmad al-Tayyib.
It is inconceivable that the German Chancellor would have agreed to address the event that comes on the heels of scheduled elections in her country to elect her successor. She may not even be the Chancellor by the time the conference starts next week.
Also, Mamata Banerjee is only the executive head of a province in India and how the organisers of the event thought it fit to invite her to a conference that is scheduled to be addressed by two heads of state (the Pope and the German Chancellor) is a big mystery.
Mamata Banerjee, whose administration did nothing to stop the murders of over 50 BJP workers and supporters since the results of the Assembly elections were announced on May 2--many women were raped and molested, hundreds were attacked and thousands driven out of their houses--is hardly the right person to speak of peace on a global platform.
The organisers of the conference, whose agenda raises grave doubts, could not have been unaware of the violence that has been raging in Bengal since the Trinamool Congress came to power in the state in 2011. Tens of thousands of Opposition leaders, workers and supporters belonging to the CPI(M), the Congress and, since 2017, the BJP, have been attacked, maimed, persecuted and driven out of their homes over the past one decade. An estimated 700 Opposition workers and supporters, including legislators, have been killed by alleged Trinamool goons.
If the Community of Sant’Egidio is unaware of this 'reign of terror' in Bengal and the politics of intolerance practised by Mamata Banerjee, it reflects poorly on the organisation. And if it is aware of violence perpetrated by Banerjee and her party in Bengal and still invited her, it raises serious questions about the Catholic body’s motives.
What has also raised eyebrows is the lack of any sort of publicity in the media (other than the Trinamool-fed news in the Bengal media) in Italy, Germany or even Egypt about this conference. There is no website dedicated to this so-called conference Mamata Banerjee has been reportedly invited to, and even the website of the Catholic body (check this) which is supposedly organising this conference has no mention of the event, even though it lists many other events it is holding.
The Community of Sant’Egidio has attracted many controversies and its actions in many war-torn countries, where it claims to have brokered peace deals, has come under cloud. It is accused of having links with Islamists and Islamic terror outfits.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) wrote to the Bengal government late last week stating that the event (the conference in Rome) is “not commensurate in status for participation by the chief minister of a state”.
This is not the first time, however, that Banerjee’s foreign visits have been cancelled. In June 2018, Banerjee cancelled her trip to China because Beijing turned down her request for a meeting with a member of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo Standing Committee.
This is the apex committee of the CPC and comprises the President and Prime Minister of China. Mamata Banerjee, who has an exaggerated sense of self-importance, wanted to meet any member of this apex committee, and when Beijing refused, she cancelled the trip in a huff (read all about it here).
In August the same year, she had to cancel her proposed visit to Chicago to address an event to mark the 125th anniversary of Swami Viekananda’s address to the Parliament of World’s Religions. The Chicago conference was to have been hosted by the Ramakrishna Mission. But the Mission wrote to Banerjee informing her of its decision to cancel the Chicago event due to the demise of a senior monk and unforeseen circumstances.
Matamata Banerjee later accused “evil forces” of pressurizing the Ramakrishna Mission to cancel the event. Her party colleagues blamed the RSS and BJP, and some falsely claimed the MEA had not given Banerjee permission to travel to Chicago, prompting the MEA to clarify that Banerjee had not even sought its permission to travel abroad.
In December last year, the Oxford Union cancelled a scheduled address by Mamata Banerjee at the last minute citing “unforeseen circumstances”, prompting the Trinamool to once again blame the BJP for applying pressure on the Oxford Union to cancel the event.
Banerjee, however, has traveled abroad many times in her capacity as the chief minister of Bengal. She has gone to a few countries in the past to woo investors from there, and the MEA had never interfered with those visits. However, it is a fact that Banerjee has often violated protocol and spoken of domestic politics during her interactions with businessmen and politicians of those countries.
“Her conduct during those visits has not been above board and she has often embarrassed not only politicians and businessmen who met her in those countries, but also the Indian government and our missions there,” a senior MEA officer told Swarajya from New Delhi. “A politician is not expected to talk about domestic politics during his or visit abroad. But Mamata Banerjee had violated that protocol and strongly criticised the BJP, the Union Government and even Prime Minister Modi during her interactions with business and political leaders abroad. That not only embarrassed the people she met, but also the Indian government,” said a senior officer who retired as an additional secretary of the MEA.
Also, said the retired IFS officer, Mamata Banerjee does not respect protocol and advice from the Indian missions that assist her on her foreign tours. “She does not stick to agendas at her meetings with business and political leaders in those countries and often starts discussing irrelevant subjects and even domestic politics,” said the serving MEA officer.
Mamata Banerjee also has a strong tendency to disregard advice from Indian diplomats posted in the countries she had visited and do things her own way, causing severe embarrassment to the diplomats and even harming India’s image abroad. “She often strays from a pre-decided topic of discussion and starts talking about irrelevant things. That’s why nothing substantive has ever come out of her visits abroad to attract investments,” said the former IFS officer.
Given all this, MEA’s refusal to grant permission to Banerjee to travel to Rome is thus perfectly justifiable. Also, Mamata Banerjee is unqualified to speak on Hinduism, tolerance and peace--the agenda of the slated conference in Rome.
A chief minister of a state who violates protocol, discusses domestic politics and even criticises the Prime Minister of the country during overseas visits ought to be permanently barred from visiting other countries in an official capacity.
And as for her Rome visit, Mamata Banerjee may well thank the MEA for denying permission and saving her the embarrassment of speaking at a vague conference organised by an group whose credentials are clouded. She would have only embarrassed herself by attending that so-called conference.
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Jaideep Mazumdar is an associate editor at Swarajya.
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