Mamata Banerjee chose her flowers carefully for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah during her recent trip to New Delhi. She carried bouquets of yellow roses for both when she called on them. Why yellow roses? Apparently, yellow roses symbolize friendship and optimism. Political circles are abuzz that the choice of flowers was Mamata’s way of symbolically extending the hand of friendship to two leaders she attacked bitterly during the Lok Sabha election campaign.

Mamata is attempting a major image revamp before the 2021 Bengal assembly polls. And like her good friend Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, an important part of the makeover is declaring truce with Modi after he romped home to a second term as prime minister with larger numbers in Parliament than he had. Kejriwal was the first to realise that his constant high-pitched run-ins with the Modi government failed to yield him political gains.

In fact, they reinforced the image of a disruptor and poor administrator. Notice how he has softened his stance since the general election. He has completely stopped attacking Modi and the central government. He supported the government on the withdrawal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. He even recently expressed faith that Modi would soon resolve the crisis in the economy. Mamata seems to have taken a cue from Kejriwal and decided to smoke the peace pipe with Modi.

This was the crux of her mission in Delhi. And she sealed it with an invitation to Modi to inaugurate a big coal mining project in Birbhum.

Cat among the pigeons

Mamata has set the cat among the pigeons in the BJP with the Birbhum invitation to Modi. Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, nominated by the Modi government, has shot off a letter to the PM urging him not to go to Birbhum. He has listed several reasons for opposing the visit. The most interesting is his “concern’’ for vulnerable Adivasi groups living in the area who he says will be displaced by the project.

He has alleged that the state government has not even started work on a rehabilitation package for the affected tribals. He has also warned that land sharks are circling the area to make a killing at the cost of local residents. The name of the prime minister, he says, should not be associated with a project for which the due diligence process is yet to be completed. It is interesting that Dasgupta has sought to turn the Birbhum coal mining project into another Nandigram, but this time directed against Mamata.

Mamata rode to power in Bengal on the controversial Nandigram economic zone project of the Left government. The proposed economic zone was opposed by tribals of the area and became a burning issue in Bengal, particularly after the Left government fired on protestors and killed several tribals. Ironically, while Dasgupta, who campaigned for the BJP in the last elections, has raised red flags over the Birbhum coal mining project, it was the Modi government at the Centre that cleared the project and allotted it to the West Bengal Power Development Corporation. Have the signals got crossed or are interesting politics at play here?

Congress fissures

The cracks in the Congress, between the old guard and the young, surfaced again recently, this time over the BJP’s push for a countrywide National Citizens’ Register (NRC). While the Congress has officially decided to oppose the move, its Tripura unit president, Kirit Pradyot Deb Barman, filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding the compilation of an NRC in his state to weed out illegal migrants. When the top brass got to hear of his petition, there were red faces all around.

According to party sources, Sonia Gandhi herself spoke to Barman and ordered him to withdraw his petition. She reminded him that the Congress stands against NRC. Undeterred, Barman is believed to have told her that he would rather resign from his post than withdraw his petition. His defiance of a diktat from the high command has left seniors rather shaken. Barman’s fate now hangs in the balance. So does the Congress party’s future in Tripura where it is on the verge of extinction.

Saffron at IIC

It looks like Modi bhakts have breached another fortress of the Khan Market gang: India International Centre. On Modi’s birthday last week, a supporter hosted a huge celebratory lunch for fellow travellers. IIC regulars were startled to find that the forecourt of this elite premise was swarming with youths wearing caps and Tshirts emblazoned with “Main bhi Modi, main bhi sevak”.

It was a decidedly unusual sight on the grounds of staid IIC. The Centre is better known as the meeting ground of the Capital’s intellectual and cultural elite, who BJP circles derisively refer to as the Khan Market gang or the Lutyens’ Delhi gang. BJP sympathisers are far and few although the best known IIC regular among them was late finance minister Arun Jaitley. In fact, Jaitley’s friends held a memorial meeting for him at IIC because he used to frequent it for tea and chatter. Well, it seems Modi bhakts have stormed the bastion now and are raring to take over.