The Modi-Mamata Saga: Who Didn't Pick Up Whose Call And Why?

Where to begin?

The fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election on Monday came three days after Cyclone Fani battered Odisha and parts of Bengal.

While PM Narendra Modi praised CM Naveen Patnaik ’s efforts during and post the disaster in Odisha , he didn’t have anything nice to say about Mamata Banerjee .

“I am just back from Odisha after reviewing the post-cyclone situation. I also wanted to speak to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over phone to discuss the issue. I had called her, but Didi is so arrogant that she didn’t speak to me. I waited for her call but she didn’t get back to me,” he said at a rally in the state.

“Speedbreaker Didi was more interested in doing politics. I wanted to speak to the state officials but the state government did not allow that to happen,” he said.

Speedbreaker Didi. Much political rhetoric, such wow.

He also tweeted , “I waited, expecting her to call me back. But she did not. I called her again. I was worried about the people of Bengal, and wanted to speak to Mamata didi. But didi did not speak to me the second time either.” 

Mamata Banerjee’s TMC had criticised Modi earlier for calling state governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to enquire about the ground situation in Bengal in the cyclone’s wake instead of the chief minister.

Since apparently the prime minister and Bengal CM only communicate to each other through statements at political rallies, Banerjee said at a public meeting in Jhargram, “Could not take PM’s call on Cyclone Fani as I was in Kharagpur.”

She said Modi had called her for a meeting at Kalaikunda, where he had landed for an election meeting after touring Odisha.

“Are we his servants that we have to go wherever he beckons? Now he will allege that I have not responded and have not shown cooperation,” she said.

“My (election) meeting at Jhargram today was fixed. Elections are on in West Bengal, while it is over in Odisha. Why should I share dais with an expiry prime minister during election time?” she asked.

This is not even the first time they’ve called each other these, um, names.

Their most recent exchange of words, however, had a twist.

I call it the “sweets saga”.

That’s right, they fought over sweets.

In his totally non-political interview with actor and Canadian citizen Akshay Kumar , Modi tried to prove he had friends in the Opposition and said the Bengal CM would send him Bengali sweets once or twice a year, knowing that he was very fond of them.

Mamata Banerjee was like... 

“We will give him rasgulla from Bengal. We will make sweets from soil and put pebbles in it similarly like cashew nuts and raisins are used in laddu that will break teeth,” she said .

And Modi was like...

“The soil of Bengal has the essence of greats like Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, JC Bose, Netaji, SP Mukherjee and if Modi gets rasgulla made of this holy soil then it will be a prasad for Modi,” he said.

And I was like...

And all the politicians in the country were like...

 RIP Indian political discourse.