West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday attacked her right wing critics for questioning her visits to the Muslim religious places, asking why she would always be targeted for attending the Muslim festivals and not when she would go to the Hindu religious sites.
Banerjee who has of late been charged with taking a soft Hindutva line to thwart the BJP’s attempts to consolidate the Hindu votes by delivering speeches in the State Assembly proving her Hindu, Brahminical traditions said, “no one asks a question when I visit Kashi Vishwanath, Pushkar or similar other places. When I go to Durga Puja or Kali Puja no one raises a question but when I attend other religious places critics raise hue and cry.”
Saying that Bengal was a land of religious tolerance and co-existence she said, “no one can destroy and disturb the communal harmony of Bengal though there have been attempts to disturb peace.” In an apparent bid to counter the BJP’s attacks condemning her as a pro-Muslim person, Banerjee had recently told in the State Assembly how she belonged to a “traditional Brahmin family performing all kinds of Pujas and paths that I have learnt from my father who was a freedom fighter.”
The Chief Minister was visiting Furfura Sharif, a Muslim religious site in Hooghly district, visited by a large number of people from the minority community. Her visit comes amid a charged up atmosphere where the political parties were indulging in what critics called a “competitive communalism” ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections.
Furfura Sharif has been a revered site for Bengali Muslims, holding a significant religious and political importance in the state. Religious preachers like Twaha Siddiqui, Abbas Siddiqi - descendents of great-grandson of Pir Saheb Mohammad Abu Bakr Siddique, whose mazar (gave) is located at Furfura Sharif, have been some of important religious figures from the area who exercise a good influence over the Bengali Muslims of the State.
In fact Naushad Siddique, one of the descendents of the Siddiqui family is an influential figure in State politics and the lone non-TMC, non-BJP MLA in the Bengal Assembly.
