Didi takes ‘fight-CPM’ story to Cambridge

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s brand of politics is generating international interest. Cambridge University has invited Railway Minister Banerjee to speak on her experience of fighting the cadre-based CPM in West Bengal.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s brand of politics is generating international interest.

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Cambridge University has invited Railway Minister Banerjee to speak on her experience of fighting the cadre-based CPM in West Bengal.

Invitations are also pending from the US and the Japan governments.

Towards the end of his tenure, former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad had emerged as a management guru of sorts, dashing to different destinations to lecture management students at different universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard and Wharton business schools.

“Banerjee is least inclined to emulate Prasad’s example, as she has no time for such things and is disinclined to undertake overseas visits just for the heck of it,” said her adviser.

But visits to Japan and the UK are being favorably considered, the adviser said.

Japan is closely collaborating with India on the dedicated freight corridor project and the cultural ties between the two countries are strong.

Besides her ministerial engagements, Banerjee is also likely to interact with civil society groups and deliver a lecture at a think tank when she visits Japan.

Banerjee is said to be sufficiently inspired by the idea of reflecting on her struggles against communists in West Bengal at Cambridge – known as a centre of neo-Marxists.