Trinamool Congress General Secretary Nilanjan Das was trending on X, formerly Twitter, after his past tweets mocking Hinduism, questioning the existence of Lord Ram, and general Hinduphobia surfaced online.
In one of the posts that has gone viral, Das, a member of TMC’s IT & Social Media Wing as per his X bio, derisively refers to Ramayana, the Hindu epic, as a cartoon—something that would have attracted ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ threats for similar disdainful remarks on ‘he who cannot be named’.
In yet another tweet, he echoes what Congress said in 2007 when it questioned the existence of Lord Ram. “What God? A mythological character in Ramayana epic,” Das replied in one of his tweets.
When he is not mocking Ramayana and questioning the existence of Lord Ram, Das busies himself hurling Gaumutra jibes, the language that Islamic terrorists use to dehumanise Hindus and justify using violence against them. Ahmad Adil Dhar, the Pulwama terrorist who rammed his explosives-laden car into a CRPF convoy in February 2019, resulting in the martyrdom of 40 soldiers, justified the attack in a pre-recorded video wherein he referred to Hindus as cow-piss drinkers.
Nevertheless, the casual Hinduphobia by Das once again proves assertions made by PM Modi against the TMC government during the Lok Sabha elections. In a rally in Barrackpur, Modi slammed the Trinamool Congress and accused the state government of turning Hindus into “second-class citizens” in the state during the TMC regime.
“TMC has made bomb making a cottage industry in Bengal. Today, it has become difficult for a common man to follow his faith in Bengal. TMC threatens people when they chant the name of Shri Ram. Jai Shri Ram! TMC does not allow people to celebrate Ram Navami. Congress, too, stands against the Ram Mandir,” Modi said in the rally.
Earlier, TMC MLA Humayun Kabir made controversial comments during an election rally in Murshidabad and said that Hindus would be drowned in the Bhagirathi River within two hours or else he would leave politics.
Hinduphobia flows from the top and is pervasive across the state
But party functionaries like Das draw their inspiration to ridicule Hinduism and Hindu God from the party supremo, who has often displayed shocking apathy towards Hindus and their concerns, usually in an attempt to shore up her minority vote bank.
Ahead of Ram Navami this year, Mamata Banerjee insinuated that Hindus who participate in the Ram Navami processions are rioters. She issued a warning to minorities by saying: “I want to caution my minority brothers and sisters that if you hear any provocative slogan on April 17, (just remember) it is the day when they try to trigger riots.”
Her predisposition against Hinduism is not a recent phenomenon. In the year 2022, Mamata Banerjee called Hindus cowards for chanting the slogans of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ while she also favoured Islam saying that Hindus were ‘kafirs’ and hence cowards. “Let them do what they want. We are not scared. We are not cowards. We are not ‘Kafir’ [possibly]. We fight. We know how to fight. We will fight against them. We will finish them,” Banerjee was quoted as saying on the occasion of Eid that year.
Recently, a heart-rending video of a woman from Bengal’s Sandeshkhali spelt out the challenges Hindus confront in the state. In the video, a Hindu woman was heard saying in Bengali, “My husband was a polling agent of the BJP. They had also filed a case (fabricated) against my husband.”
“He has been missing since yesterday. The men in the village are not at their homes. They have been hunted down by TMC goons and beaten mercilessly,” she further added.
“My husband was BJP’s polling agent. He is missing.
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) June 14, 2024
“They beat up our men so badly they will be crippled for life.
“We are cut off from bare necessities, our children are starving.
“TMC moles in our village are ratting out BJP workers to the goons.
“We plead Mamata Banerjee to… pic.twitter.com/oWzSeq2eSr
Mamata Banerjee’s intolerance towards Hindus and the chant of Jai Shri Ram is a longstanding issue. In May 2019, soon after the BJP had secured a massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections with 18 seats in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal police arrested 10 people from Barrackpore for chanting slogans of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ in North 24 Parganas at Mamata Banerjee’s convoy.
Accusing the BJP of pitting non-Bengalis against Bengalis, Mamata had asked the police to immediately take down the names of those chanting the slogans so that stern action could be initiated against them. This was not only an aggressive use of power, but it also highlights cowardice because in this case someone as powerful as a chief minister of a state is seen getting disturbed by a simple nonviolent protest by innocent Hindus just chanting Jai Shri Ram.
Even before that, while in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections, Mamata Banerjee had stepped down from her vehicle to yell at those who were registering their protest by chanting Jai Shri Ram.
In January 2021, she was seen walking out of the stage refusing to address the public gathered at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial for Netaji birth anniversary celebrations, because the crowd was chanting Jai Shri Ram.
