Author: J.P. Yadav
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: November 18, 2014
URL:   http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141118/jsp/frontpage/story_1714.jsp#.VGrXmjSUfSs

She came, she saw Sonia Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury and then she saw L.K. Advani and Arun Jaitley, too.

Contradictions marked the launch of Mamata Banerjee's secular tourism in New Delhi with the first day ending at the door of a BJP leader with promises of similar ports of call later this week.

The stated objective of Mamata's trip to the capital was to attend a conference organised by the Congress to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.

The event had acquired a partisan edge after the Congress invited several leaders and parties, including the Chinese communist party, but not Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.

In effect, Mamata took part in a meeting on secularism but ended up spending time with so-called anti-secularists against whom the event was organised in the first place.

The point Mamata sought to drive home by attending a meeting hosted by Sonia and bonding with Left leaders was undermined by her decision to skip lunch at the venue and call on Advani and later, Jaitley.