As soon as PM Narendra Modi left West Bengal, a controversy started at his meeting venue at Sahagunge, Dunlop Maidan ground Hooghly on Monday. Mamata Banerjee held a meeting on the very same ground on Wednesday. Before the start of Mamata’s meeting, Trinamool activists are believed to have purified the field by sprinkling Gangajal (water from the Holy Ganges, the most sacred river for Hindus).
Earlier in 2018, December TMC did the same at Cooch Behar in North Bengal. Hundreds of Trinamool supporters arrived at the 2,37,600 sq ft venue which had been offered to the BJP for its rally and started cleaning the rally ground with cow dung and Gangajal. TMC leader Pankaj Ghosh reportedly said that this is the land of lord Madanmohan and since BJP gave the message of communal hate, they have ‘purified’ the place.
“We have not taken over the land. We only purified it with cow dung and Gangajal. That is why our flags were put up. The purification program was announced by Mamata Banerjee,” said Rabindranath Ghosh, Trinamool Cooch Behar District President, and Senior Minister.
Trinamool leaders in districts across Bengal have announced that each time the BJP holds a rally, roads will be cleaned with cow dung, water, and if possible, water from the Ganges. They have also vowed to take out processions in which Kirtan (devotional songs) and rituals associated with the Sanatan Hindu Dharma, will be performed.
In mid-November 2018, Mamata Banerjee called for the cleansing of areas through which the saffron party’s chariots would pass during BJP’s Rath Yatra rally. “I have asked my party workers to conduct ‘Purification and Unity Yatra’ to cleanse the areas through which the chariots pass. I wonder what sort of Yatra it would be with chariots equipped with five-star facilities. It is ‘Ravan Yatra’, not ‘Rath Yatra’,” she quipped.
This is being seen as a slight to PM on the basis of his OBC status. In the past too his opponents including Congress leaders have abused him as Ghanchi, Gangu Teli. Modi belongs to the caste that presses oil for a living. The washing of the premises of the meeting and name-calling seems to be an indirect attack by all of the opposition on Prime Minister Modi’s Lower Caste (OBC) status.
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