Mamata keeps her distance

The Trinamool Congress' equation with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been a roller-coaster ride. It was all hunky-dory in the winter of 2016, when four central ministers graced the Bengal Global Business Summit; in the run-up to the Assembly elections in May, it soured. It improved immediately after the polls in which Mamata Banerjee swept through Bengal and now, once more, it's turned bitter. What has made it obvious is Banerjee's decision to drop a discussion in the state Assembly on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) constitutional amendment as passed by Parliament, to thereafter ratify it. The discussion was scheduled on August 29 but the day before, the government decided to drop it. For the record, top TMC leaders disagree that it had anything to do with the state's relations with the Centre but observers believe otherwise. "We have supported GST since 2009 and Centre-state relations have nothing to do it. It had to be dropped for paucity of time because the change of name of Bengal was being discussed," insisted a senior from the party.

That, probably, is only part of the story. In June, when chambers of commerce got together to felicitate Banerjee, for her resounding victory in the Assembly elections, she had publicly asked finance minister Amit Mitra also the chairman of the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers on GST, to iron out differences on the latter issue in one or two meetings. From that unequivocal support to dropping the discussion on GST is an event or two. In particular, Banerjee is irked over the Modi government's move to set up a central panel to monitor its schemes and funds that it sends to the states.

It was 'central interference' when the state government was told it would have to bear 40 per cent of the cost of some 20 central schemes; it was 'central interference' that the Centre proposed to have representatives in the state treasury to monitor the spending of central funds; it was, of course, 'central interference' in law and order of states when the Modi government held an inter-state council meeting. Perhaps, the seeds of the resentment were first sowed by Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. After lending unequivocal support to GST, Jaitley had said in the Lok Sabha that the West Bengal government should only borrow in line with repayment capacity. The remark didn't go down well with a state that was facing a fiscal crisis. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, market borrowings and borrowings from small savings have been maturing every year. What's more, over the next five years, 2016-17 to 2020-2021, repayment of the principal amounts that would mature are to the tune of Rs 99,524 crore. While bonhomie with the Centre seems to have turned sour, at least for the moment, Banerjee is making new friends. It was reported she and Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal met over dinner in Rome. The enemy of my enemy is my friend?