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The war between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP showed no signs of abating with the latter’s Jai Shree Ram slogan becoming the latest bone-of-contention.
Three days ago, Banerjee lost her cool when BJP workers chanted Jai Shree Ram during her visit to the North 24-Parganas. She instructed the police to take action and some people were arrested, reports said.
Over the last few days more Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders were confronted with the same chants.
The BJP has also mounted a relentless attack on the Chief Minister. Video clips and memes of the incident(s) also went viral on social media.
The BJP MP from Barrackpore, Arjun Singh, fired the first salvo, saying 10 lakh post cards with Jai Shree Ram written on them will be sent to the Chief Minister’s office and residence.
Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Babul Supriyo, too, was critical of the TMC chief and her strong reactions.
A political analyst said the slogan has become a full-fledged political issue. “CM’s strong reactions will only embolden BJP workers,” he said.
Mamata’s counter
Banerjee, on her part, has initiated a counter response.
The Chief Minister on Sunday changed her display picture across social media platforms to Jai Hind, Jai Bangla . The picture of TMC’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts were also changed to Jai Hind, Jai Bangla with pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Matangini Hazra, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.
The TMC supremo, in a detailed Facebook post, accused the BJP of “mixing religion with politics. And alleged “divisiveness was being spread in Bengal”.
She said the slogans have religious and social connotations, but are being used by the BJP and the RSS to “sell the ideology of hatred”.
“We respect these sentiments. But the BJP is using these religious slogansto mix religion with politics. We do not respect this enforcement of political slogans on others in the name of so-called RSS, which Bengal never accepted.”
Banerjee added she has no issues with any party slogan or a political slogan.
“I have no problem with any particular slogan of political parties. Every political party has a slogan. My party has Jai Hind, Vande Mataram . The Left has Inquilab Zindabad . We respect each other,” she wrote.
Reacting to the social media memes, Banerjee said “misinformation and dis-information” was being spread “to create confusion and suppress truth and reality”.
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