A couple of months back, if we were told the cadres of TMC would chant “Jai Shri Ram” on the streets of Kolkata, we would have found it quite difficult to believe. But as it happened, the huge rallies that were organized by RSS and other Hindu organizations on the occasion of Ram Navami gave Mamata Banerjee enough jitters for her to accuse them of hijacking Shri Rama for their political ambitions. Quite expectedly, the TMC labeled the rallies as a blatant attempt by Hindutva forces to divide the state along religious lines and spread communal tension.
The Trinamool Congress wants us to believe that Hindutva organizations are spreading communal tension in the state. One wonders then if the communal riots in Dhulagarh and Kaliachak where Hindus were attacked by the universally acknowledged Peaceful Community, and the State Machinery failed completely to provide security to Hindus, were the hallmarks of the communal harmony that TMC has managed to maintain in the state prior to the Saffron Surge. Of course, if Mamata Banerjee were to be believed, all those riots were an elaborate Sanghi conspiracy to further their political ideology and the perpetrators were actually Sanghis in Peaceful garb.
The 5th of April marks the day where one could safely claim that the BJP has definitively arrived on the scene in West Bengal. Over 150 rallies were organized in the state for Ram Navami, young men and women took to the streets with swords and weapons and the procession thundered with chants of ‘Jai Shri Rama’. One could even spot posters pledging the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Since independence, Bengal was one state that the Sangh had failed to gain any significant traction in but it seems, albeit late, the hard work of the RSS is finally beginning to pay off.
The attendance of the Ram Navami rallies in West Bengal is sure to make Mamata Banerjee feel deeply insecure in her own turf.
She has been constantly riddled with one controversy after another for quite a few years and the recent atrocities against Hindus and her incessant minority appeasement has made a significant chunk of the population feel very uncomfortable. On top of it, Narendra Modi’s overwhelming popularity at the national stage has made the BJP’s job of penetrating West Bengal a lot easier. The age old formula of accusing the Sangh and BJP of causing communal tensions has failed spectacularly at preventing their stellar rise in the past four years and it is highly unlikely that it will continue to work for Mamata Banerjee. Amidst such circumstances, it will be interesting to see how the Chief Minister of West Bengal deals with the Saffron Surge.
Living up to expectations, the Secular brigade of Bengal, which seeks to gain legitimacy by uttering inanities such as, “Durga Pujo is more of a cultural festival than a religious festival,” were visibly disturbed by the unprecedented Ram Navami celebrations in the state. According to them, Ram Navami is not a very important festival for Bengalis and the celebrations were nothing more than an attempt to polarize the society.
As @OGSaffron says, “Shri Rama is Dharma, and is thus, our greatest civilizational inheritance.” Thus, all Hindus regardless of their being Bengalis or Gujratis or Marathis should enthusiastically celebrate Ram Navami with all the pomp and vigor that the occasion commands. As Anubrata Mondal of TMC said, there are 127 Temples dedicated to Hanuman in Birbhum district alone. The secularists of West Bengal should ask themselves, could PawanPutra ever find solace and keep himself away from Siyavar Ramachandra?
The President of West Bengal BJP, Dilip Ghosh, said on Tuesday, “When Muharram is observed there is no talk of polarisation. When Eid or Christmas is celebrated, there is no talk of polarisation. But, Ram Navami is celebrated, they say it will lead to polarisation. If Ram Navami does lead to polarisation, let it be. We will do it.” Judging from Dilip Ghosh’s comments, it seems BJP has decided to go after Mamata Banerjee with vengeance and they have already sensed blood. Perhaps it is a sign of the morbidity of Secularism that celebrations of Ram Navami are accused of causing polarization in the society. After decades of Communist rule that left the state in ruins and then Mamata Banerjee’s regime that saw an era of unabashed minority appeasement and rise of Islamic fundamentalism, perhaps embracing Shri Rama will spark the much necessary Bengal renaissance.
