Mamata invited to world railway meet in China
A week within Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee canceling her visit to Cambridge University to speak on the irrelevance of the Left, an invitation from China, the ideological parent of the CPI(M), her bitter political opponent, has landed on the table of the railway minister.
A week within Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee canceling her visit to Cambridge University to speak on the irrelevance of the Left, an invitation from China, the ideological parent of the CPI(M), her bitter political opponent, has landed on the table of the railway minister.
However, Mamata may not get an official chance to rail against her bitter opponents as the invitation is for a World Railway meet that will be held in Beijing, the capital of China.
“There has been a formal request. She is getting so many invitations from foreign countries,” said Ratan Mukherjee, personal assistant to Mamata Banerjee.
Trinamool leaders close to Mamata said on Monday she was willing to visit Beijing provided the situation permitted her to leave the state. If the visit does materialize eventually, it will be the first overseas trip of Mamata after she became the railways minister in May 2009.
The meeting is supposed to focus on advanced railway technology, high-speed trains and how to adhere to ecological guidelines and protect the environment while operating a railway network. National convention center in Beijing
The Indian Railways run a network that spans one of the largest in the world with about 62,000 km of tracks.
The invitation is to visit China between 7 to 9 December. The 7th World Congress of High Speed Rail is being organized in Beijing. The Congress is being organized at the National Convention Centre, with the theme ‘high speed rail spearheading greener transport’
Significantly, Mamata was supposed to visit Cambridge, the highlight of which was her speech in Cambridge, which was to be delivered on October 25. The general secretary of CPI(M) Prakash Karat, was supposed to have delivered a speech in the same university three days earlier.
But Mamata cancelled the visit arguing the prevailing situation in the state doesn’t allow her to leave West Bengal for a period of seven-eight days.
A trained lawyer and a rabble rousing speaker, Mamata is well equipped to unleash a barrage against her opponents back home, but it is not clear whether the Chinese authorities will grant her a patient audience.