)
At check post number 2023 6-S, a stream of trucks enter Agartala, the capital of Tripura, from Brahmanberia, a small town in Bangladesh. Alongside a drain that runs into Bangladesh, some 2,000 trucks every day bring anything from fish, cement, machinery and just about anything into India.
Most of it is made in Bangladesh. However, things such as two gas and steam turbines and about 100 over dimensional cargo, required for ONGC Tripura Power Company's 726.6-megawatt (Mw) power plant, have also come in through the check post. Made in India by BHEL, it was Bangladesh's river port of Ashuganj, which transported the crucial equipment for the power plant in Palantala.
Not surprising then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared dais with Tawfiq-e-Elahi, adviser to Bangladesh's prime minister enjoying a Cabinet rank, and Naserul Hamid, minister of state in Bangladesh, on Monday at the inauguration of the second unit of the power plant. Modi's speech on the last day of the three-day visit to the Northeastern states ended with Bangladesh dominating the agenda. Illegal immigration from Bangladesh was the central point of Modi's campaign rally earlier this year in eastern and northeastern parts of the country. On Sunday, in Assam, he said, "I will make such an arrangement that all the roads that are today helping Bangladeshis enter and destroy Assam are closed." Strangely, with the change of state, Modi sung a different tune on Monday. In Tripura's Palantala, he offered his gratitude to Bangladesh for opening its border for transit of power equipment. He welcomed Elahi who came to Tripura after over 40 decades.
Ealhi, too, addressed the rally and recounted days of liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan when he quit bureaucracy to join the struggle. "We fought shoulder to shoulder with the Indian Army. We are grateful to the Indian people," he said.
The road to the rally site, which was inside OTPC's complex itself, was full of oddities. Agartala had posters welcoming Modi but just as one entered Bishramganj, hammer and sickle on the red flags of Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) lined the road. At Sepahijalajust, Modi's poster stood right across the road in front of a CPI(M) office.
The CPI(M) is into its fifth term in the state. Tripura is the only Left bastion in the country but is not only playing host to Modi but its Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had his ministers listen to the Modi mantra later in the day.
At the rally, Modi tactfully took to another version of saffron. This time on the Indian flag; saffron, he said, was needed to revolutionise the energy sector. With development agenda in hand, saffron seems fast chasing the red, with the crowd cheering each time Modi waved his hand.
