The Trinamool Congress has taken strong exception to what party leaders called a ‘saffron bid’ to deter Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from entering the Jagannath Temple in Puri. This even as a member of the Puri shrine trustee board allegedly requested the management to stop Banerjee from entering the temple for espousing the cause of beef-eaters. Somnath Khutia the person concerned subsequently told the media that he had “come to know through WhatsApp and other sources that Mamata Banerjee supports beef-eating and hence she should be barred from entering the shrine.”
The Chief Minister who on Tuesday evening left for Bhubaneshwar and Puri is likely to meet jailed party MP Sudip Bandopadhyay who is currently recuperating in a hospital on account of illness before travelling to Jagannath Temple in Puri for offering prayers.
“Though this is a private visit, the BJP is trying to politicise it by raising irrelevant and false issues,” said State Minister and Trinamool Congress general secretary Partho Chatterjee adding his party had strong exception of this.
However, BJP’s Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh said “Even former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had to face a similar situation for a controversial stance taken by her” adding “Mamata Banerjee had gone on record telling in a televised interview how she backed cow slaughter and how those who ate beef should not be stopped from doing so.”
Banerjee had told a Bangla television channel that she did not want to slap prohibition laws on food.
“I do not want to politicise issues like food habits on the basis of religion. There are people who eat mutton, others eat chicken and there are also many of my SC/ST and Christian brothers who prefer eating beef. So I do not want to come in between the food and its consumer just in the name of religion.”Khutia had been arrested sources said.