Days after raking up controversy with her ‘Mrityu Kumbh’ (deadly Kumbh) remarks, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has done a volte face, saying her love for her own religion was beyond question, and that religion is a personal affair, while festival belongs to all.

Even as the BJP upped its decibel level demanding an apology from the Chief Minister for making an "uncouth remark" against a Santani festival Banerjee on Thursday said, "Who said I do not respect my religion? Remember, religion belongs to an individual, but festivals are for all."

In an apparent bid to control the damage she had earlier reminded that she was a daughter of a Hindu Brahmin family and that she performed Pujas and Paath three times a day. "But that is my personal affair and why should I make it public. I have respect and regard for my religion and all religions and cultures equally," she said. Banerjee capped her Thursday comments with another one on Friday saying her Government was working tirelessly for the development of Bengali as a language.

"It is my Government that has supplied tomes of research papers to the Central government to help categorise Bengali as a classical language. Out tireless efforts have made it possible to prove that Bengali has a more than a thousand years of history. It is the fifth largest spoken language in the world and perhaps the second largest spoken one in Asia." She was speaking at an International Mother Language Day.

In what critics called a balancing act "for the mess she created on Tuesday by antagonising the Hindu electorate the Chief Minister made use of the Bengali sentiment to offset the damage." She said, "my love for my Bengali language, and its richness can never be taken away, it is for this we realise the sentiment behind a mother language and so we have recognised all the languages from Gorkhali to Kurmali to Hindi to Alchiki."

Banerjee drew criticism after she criticised the BJP Governments both in the Centre and Uttar Pradesh for making Mahakumbh a money spinning event by heavily publicising without making adequate arrangements to handle the massive turnout. Banerjee had on Tuesday during her speech in the State Assembly termed the mega event at Prayagraj "Mrityu Kumbh" saying "I too have regards for the event, but I cannot support this mismanagement where you publicise an event and call in crores of people and then mismanage the entire affair leading to so many deaths, and hiding dead bodies.This has turned into Mrityu Kumbh. Using religion for politics is the worst thing you can do."

Her remarks immediately triggered a countrywide outburst.