In an apparent bid to arrest erosion in the Hindu vote base ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced stipend for the Hindu “Sanatani” priests triggering criticism from the opposition BJP, Left and Congress who condemned her policy of “bringing cow belt politics to Bengal.”
The new scheme will entail a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 and free housing for more than 8,000 poor Sanatan Brahmin priests of Bengal.
“We had earlier provided land to the Sanatan Brahmin sect to set up an academy at Kolaghat. Many priests in this sect are financially weak. We have decided to help them by providing them with an allowance of Rs 1,000 per month and also free housing under the state government’s housing scheme,” the Chief Minister said.
Congratulating the Hindi speaking population on Hindi Diwas she said Bengal was a place for the people of all religions, languages and sects, adding the Government would soon set up a Hindi Academy and a Dalit Sahitya Academy.
“We respect all languages. We have decided to form a new Hindi Academy. We have also decided to set up a Dalit Sahitya Academy. Dalits’ languages have influence on the Bengali language” she said.
Reacting to her decision to woo the priests at the fag end of her rule senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha said “this is another mark of Mamata Banerjee’s votebank politics… soon after coming to power she had started stipend for the Muezzims and Imams to mollycoddle the Muslim votes. And now at the fag end of her rule when she knows that the Hindus have felt let down during her rule and the entire Hindu vote has shifted to the BJP she is trying to win them back.
“Today she is trying to rectify her mistakes but it will yield noresult. No amount of measures will pacify the dejected Hindu voters because they have known her true face. They will not be fooled by her anymore. She will have to go out of power in the coming elections.”
Congress Lok Sabha leader and PCC president Adhir Chowdhury said “when she announced stipend for the Imams after coming to power the Congress had protested saying it was a way to divide the people. Now she is again assuming the same path this time by trying to appease the Brahmins so that the Hindu voters are divided vertically. But people are conscious this time and they will read through her tricks.”
CPI(M) Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakrabarty said “Mamata Banerjee has a dirty habit of playing one section of voters against the other. By dividing the voters she wants to win the elections… she talks of secularism and condemns communalism in public. But if this is not playing communal card then what is? She is competing with the BJP in communal politics instead of dealing with unemployment problem, price rise, rising law and order problems…. This only proves that theBJP and TMC are two sides of the same coin.