It’s going to be “Jai Shri Ram” vs “Jai Maa Kali” in West Bengal. While the BJP is raising the war cry of Jai Shri Ram in Bengal, the TMC has responded saying Jai Maa Kali is a Bengali catchphrase and would be used by its supporters to counter Jai Shri Ram.
The TMC’s response came after BJP’s observer for the State Kailash Vijayvargiya said, “Bengal is the land of Mahakali and we need her blessings,” adding his party would use Jai Maa Kali in tandem with Jai Shri Ram to end the TMC’s misrule.
He said the slogans would be used by the BJP workers till the TMC was not shoved out of power. “I wonder why Mamata Banerjee is irked hearing Jai Shri Ram slogans,” he said asking whether such anger was a pretension to appease an alternate section of the society.
“We are against the TMC’s appeasement and terror tactic,” he said, adding it was the two issues of “appeasement and terror” that hastened the decline of Mamata Banerjee in the State.
Quickly reacting to the BJP’s proposal to “hijack” Jai Maa Kali, TMC youth wing leader and MP Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday directed his party men to counter Jai Shri Ram with Jai Maa Kali. Abhishek is nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Our slogan will be Jai Maa Kali which will be chanted against Jai Shri Ram,” he said, adding the “TRP of Jai Shri Ram is down and the TRP of Jai Maa Kali is up because it reflects our Bengali culture.”
Elsewhere reacting to the recent outbreak of the trend where religious sloganeering was considered the best way to polarise people, Bengal cine star and director Aparna Sen said, “By giving ‘knee jerk and impulsive reactions’ to the Jai Shri Ram slogans, Mamata Banerjee was doing a great disservice to her own political cause.”
The people are upset by the way she reacted recently by leaping off her car to confront bystanders shouting Jai Shri Ram, Sen said, adding, “She is turning her own voters against her (party). She is digging her own grave.”
The actor said Mamata had done enough developmental works to win her votes but to do so she should stop giving impulsive response to provocations.
“Before giving any reaction she should consult people like Amit Mitra and Saugato Roy,” Sen said.