Trinamool smells BJP-RSS hand in St. Stephens withdrawing invite to Mamata

Smelling a BJP-RSS hand in Delhi's St Stephens College withdrawing an invitation to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress on Saturday said she cannot be silenced and would go ahead with her trip to the national capital.

"Let them keep trying, she cannot be silenced. The Bengal CM's trip to Delhi is on schedule," said a senior Trinamool Congress MP.

Banerjee was earlier slated to address students of the prestigious college on August 1.

The MP referred to two recent instances where Banerjee had to cancel her scheduled visits.

Last month, Banerjee had to call off her scheduled trip to Chicago in August to attend the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's historic speech at the Parliament of World's Religions after the organisers wrote to her that the event has been cancelled due to "unforeseen difficulties" and "demise of a monk".

Days later, Banerjee had to abandon her plans for a eight-day tour to China at the last moment as the scheduled political meetings "at the appropriate level" under the Exchange Programme between the two countries were not confirmed.

"First, the Vivekananda event in Chicago. Then her China visit and now St Stephens! Mamata Banerjee is giving the BJP-RSS sleepless nights," the MP said.

He informed that Banerjee would go to Delhi 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.

However, a teacher of St. Stephens has been quoted in a section of the media as saying that the invite had to be withdrawn due to protocol issues.

--IANS

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