Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has, by his irresponsible utterances, created unnecessary embarrassment with Nepal and Sri Lanka reacting to his statement by lodging a complaint with New Delhi. Biplab had recently claimed that Amit Shah had during his tenure as the BJP chief told him and some others that the BJP would be forming a government not only in Indian states but also in Nepal and Sri Lanka. The fact is that Shah never said anything as immature as this and it is Biplab alone who has interpreted things differently. Tripura Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath has tried to downplay the controversy. He has stated that in the CM’s estimation, since the BJP was the world’s largest political party, other countries would be influenced by its thinking and ideology as the case had been in Tripura. This issue has been taken very seriously by the Ministry of External Affairs that has been working round the clock to improve relations with both Colombo and Kathmandu. What the CM has done is that he has thrown a spanner in the works. As it is, many neighbouring countries are critical of India, for trying to be the ‘big brother’ of the region and have often expressed themselves openly. Praising the achievements of his party is one thing, but trying to send a message to sovereign countries that the saffron party would rule them also in the future is tantamount to a totally unacceptable act internationally.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is till today criticised by many of his opponents for attending the mega rally in Houston where he made a strong pitch for President Donald Trump. “Abki Baar Trump Sarkar” was construed as an interference in some other country’s domestic affairs. Thankfully this issue is over and both New Delhi and Washington are trying to forge their relationship together, keeping in mind the common interests of the two nations, one the oldest democracy in the world and the second, the largest democracy.
Biplab is evidently naïve and is given to making populist statements that are unverified and not supported by facts. He should refrain from commenting on international affairs and concentrate on the development of his own state. Sometime ago, he had stirred a controversy by declaring that the Internet existed during the Mahabharat period. This unscientific observation made many in his own party to comment that if there was Internet at that time, was there not a good eye surgeon who could have rectified the vision of Dhritarashtra, the blind Kaurav King whose 100 sons were responsible for the war? There are lessons from Mahabharat that we need to learn and the Gita discourse is the most important. But the dilution of the importance and significance of our epics is not acceptable.
Biplab is not the only one who likes to shoot from the hip. There are other motor mouths as well. The BJP in its own interest should rein them in and ask them to concentrate on tasks assigned to them rather than displaying their ignorance and damaging international relations.