Bhutan PM drives Mamata - Chief minister boosts New Delhi's relations with neighbour

Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay drives Mamata to
Hotel Druk. Picture by Devadeep Purohit

Devadeep Purohit, TT, Thimphu, Oct. 7: Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay today gave Mamata Banerjee a ride to a hotel after a dinner he hosted for the chief minister, the gesture capturing the boost she gave to India's relations with the country 15 months after Narendra Modi's visit to the Himalayan nation.

"It was an idea from the heart," Tobgay told The Telegraph, asked what prompted him to give a ride to Mamata. "Her trip was historic, it was successful," added the Harvard-educated Prime Minister whom Mamata has invited to the Bengal government's business conclave in January. Tobgay said he had accepted the invitation.

After the dinner Tobgay hosted for Mamata, the chief minister was about to get into her car to visit Hotel Druk, where some members of her delegation and journalists were putting up, when the Prime Minister offered to drive the hatchback.

"The Prime Minister suddenly said he would drive the car and drop me at the hotel.... I was embarrassed. But he said he was my brother and he wanted to do it," Mamata said.

Over the past three days, Tobgay has met the chief minister at least five times.

Although the focus of the trip was to boost Bengal-Bhutan trade and tourism, the multiple parleys between the chief minister and the Prime Minister was an indication that Mamata was facilitating a better bonding between Thimphu and New Delhi.

After assuming office, Modi had chosen Bhutan for his first foreign trip, which underscored the importance Delhi attaches to Thimphu.

Bhutan is of strategic importance to India because of its location - between India and China. Beijing has been trying to settle a long-pending border dispute with Bhutan on the western side of the Himalayan country.

For New Delhi, the region assumes significance as any resolution of the dispute in favour of China will make vulnerable the narrow corridor, referred to as chicken's neck, connecting India's mainland with the northeastern states. For India's security interests, the corridor is of immense importance and Bhutan's unwillingness to settle the dispute with China has kept the channel secure till now.

"The goodwill the Bengal chief minister has created during the trip will surely be good news for New Delhi. The chief minister has ended up complementing Modi's efforts to keep Thimphu in good humour," a strategic affairs expert in Bhutan said.

Mamata did not utter a word in public on such strategic issues during her stay in Bhutan. In the public meetings and media briefings in Bhutan, she focused on how to increase cooperation with the country, which is land-locked and heavily dependent on Bengal.

Bengal youth affairs minister Aroop Biswas was also in the car when the Prime Minister drove Mamata. "I just could not believe that I was sitting in a car driven by the Prime Minister. During the 20-25 minute drive, I came to know how well-informed he is about the politics of Bengal," he said.

According to him, the Prime Minister congratulated the chief minister for her party's "good performance" in the Bengal elections whose results were announced today.

At Hotel Druk, Tobgay introduced Mamata to the staff, including the executive chef, Santanu, a Bengali from Nadia's Ranaghat who prepared the Bengali food for today's dinner.

Bhutan is trying to woo tourists from Bengal and Mamata has pledged support to the initiative.