Delhi’ still may be some distance away for Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-- who is being projected by her party Trinamool Congress as a strong contender for the Prime Minister’s post opposite Narendra Modi--but her admirers have already started projecting her as a Goddess so to say.
The organizers of a North Kolkata Puja committee have installed the idol of the Chief Minister as Mother Goddess Durga. Considering the “service” rendered by her to the people of Bengal, Banerjee will be worshipped by the committee members of Baguiati Nazrul Park Unnayan Samiti.
Here the Chief Minister has ten hands a la the Mother Goddess with each hand representing a popular scheme welfare scheme that her Government has undertaken in the past more than a decade of her rule.
“If you ask me about the meaning the 10 hands of the idol (of the Chief Minister) I would say they represent her schemes that have benefited crores of people of the State and have even earned international accolades … such schemes are Kanyashree, Rupashree, Sabuj Saathi (an eco friendly scheme entailing distribution of free cycles to school goers), Laxmir Bhandar (that provides a monthlyallowance Rs 500 to all the women of the State) and so on,” said IK Bagui a senior member of the Committee.
The idol is made of fibre glass.
“We are too small a fry to pay Didi back for what she does for us … the whole State … She works day and night for the people of Bengal … So this time we thought ‘why not pay a small tribute to her greatness!” said another senior member.
Cut to South Kolkata. Like the previous years Banerjee --- who has written a song and lent music to it in adoration of the Mother Goddess --- continued to inaugurate various Durga Puja pandals around Kolkata.
While inaugurating pandals at Shiv Mandir and Tridhara Sanmilani in South Kolkata the Chief Minister said “I do not personally go out during the Pujas as there is huge rush and it would be very difficult for the police to maintain security protocols and ensure order for the common people … So I inaugurate the Pujas well in advance and then retire into my home from where I carry out my routine work.”
Meanwhile, the police administration of Kolkata and other parts of the State was alerted by intelligence agencies to maintain utmost vigil during the Pujas when lakhs of people would be on the roads hopping pandals.