London Dreams

Having lived through the hype of turning into a 'global city', in the buildup to the Commonwealth Games last year, and with Mumbai's Shanghai dreams seeming increasingly distant, it's Kolkata's turn to claim that it dreams of going global too

London Dreams

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, still riding high on her stunning electoral success, has now promised to transform Kolkata into London! Now no one would mistake the Hooghly for the Thames, but Didi obviously believes that prettying up the banks of the Hooghly would be magical enough to make Kolkatans believe they've been transported to London. She should perhaps just go as far as Modi's own Ahmedabad attempt.

Not just that, Kolkata is prepping to get a monument like Mumbai's Gateway of India, an integrated transport system, and in keeping with the London theme, a giant Ferris wheel evoking the famed London 'Eye'. Clearly Mamata wishes to make a quick mark. Unfortunately politicians' 'dream' projects often turn out to be nightmares for everyone else. And anyway most Kolkatans may prefer Kolkata to just remain Kolkatau00a0-- although a slightly improved version would be most welcome.

Slugging it out
The acrimonious monsoon was entirely expected, given that the government itself is in firefighting mode against the combined onslaught of such issues as corruption, inflation and scam-a-day situations.

It was widely expected that the government would be constantly on the backfoot, but it took sports minister Ajay Maken to take the fight into the Opposition camp.

He scored big when he blamed the BJP-led NDA government under Vajpayee of having appointed Suresh Kalmadi to head the Commonwealth Games organising committee. A masterstroke, or so the Congress hopes now.

Though the clever move may well be dwarfed by other bigger issues in the stormy days ahead, but it does serve as an interesting example of the kind of clever politics that Dilli is so adept at playing.

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