Stephen's College snubs Mamata Banerjee, withdraws invitation

New Delhi: The Trinamul Congress was left red-faced when the St. Stephen’s College withdrew an invite extended to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to attend an event and interact with the students of the institute. The event, planned by one of the societies of the college, will be held on August 1.

Ms Banerjee, who is reaching the national Capital on Monday, was supposed to attend the event. According to reports the principal of the college denied permission and the invitation was eventually withdrawn on Friday.

It was learnt that The Bengali Literary Society of St. Stephen’s had invited Ms Banerjee to speak at the college on August 1 and Ms Banerjee’s office had consented. On Friday, Ms Banerjee’s office received a letter informing that the event had been cancelled. College principal John Varghese could not be contacted for a comment.  

This is the third event in recent weeks that the chief minister expected to attend but was cancelled. In June, Ms Banerjee cancelled a visit to China. In late August, she was to fly to Chicago to address a group of monks on the anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s historic Chicago address. The organisers, however, cancelled the event after a senior monk of the order died.

An angry TMC lost no time to blame the BJP and RSS for the withdrawal of the invite. Reacting to the development, TMC spokesperson and leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Derek O’Brien said, “First, the Vivekananda event in Chicago, then her China visit and now St. Stephens. Mamata Banerjee is giving the BJP-RSS sleepless nights. Let them keep trying, she cannot be silenced.”

While her  St. Stephens visit has been nixed Ms Banerjee after arriving in Delhi on Monday is expected to go ahead with her meeting with the Christian priests. She is also likely to visit Parliament on Tuesday.

Ms Banerjee is expected to be the chief guest at the “Love Your Neighbour” conference organised by India’s largest Christian body, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, on July 31.

On course to forge a grand alliance against the BJP, Ms Banerjee will be meeting the Opposition leaders and invite them for the “federal front” rally to be held in Kolkata in January. While her party has been projecting her as the face of  the Opposition, Ms Banerjee on Saturday made it clear that there would be no PM candidate from the Opposition. “Please do not pick and choose any particular name to divide us,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief told reporters after her meeting with the NCP leader Mr Omar Abdullah on Saturday.

The last time when she was on Delhi, she along with some other chief ministers tried meet the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who was sitting in a dharna at the office of the Delhi LG.  

It may be recalled that last week during an informal interaction women journalists the Congress president Mr Rahul Gandhi also indicated that his party was not averse to any woman leader becoming the Prime Minister of the country.