In a video shared by the Twitter handle of BJP Bengal today, a Trinamool Congress leader (as claimed by BJP Bengal) was heard threatening people not to chant the slogan of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in they wanted to live in West Bengal. The TMC leader who is apparently addressing people in some sort of gathering said that chanting Jai Shri Ram would not be allowed in the TMC-ruled state. He asked people to move to Gujarat if they wanted to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
One cannot even utter “Jai Shree Ram” in Mamata’s Bengal! TMC leader openly threatening and asking people to move to Gujarat, if they want to chant Jai Shri Ram… pic.twitter.com/xiNEFg9yEE
— BJP Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) November 19, 2020
In a fiery speech in Bengali in the undated video, the leader said that chanting of Jai Shree Ram wont be allowed in the state. “These will not be allowed here”, he said. He added that those who wants to chant it can do it in Modi’s state Gujarat.
The Trinamool Congress party’s dislike for Jai Shree Ram is not not a secret, last year it was openly expressed by CM Mamata Banerjee. In May last year, Mamata Banerjee had lost her cool when some people were chanting the slogan on a road. Hearing the slogan, she had got down from her vehicle and confronted the people. The incident had repeated four weeks later, when the CM had alleged the people chanting the slogan were criminals, and actions will be taken against them. Accordingly, the West Bengal had arrested around a dozen people for chanting the slogan in front the CM.
BJP office set ablaze in West Bengal
The TMC is notorious for being intolerant towards rival political ideologies. In a shocking incident, an office of the BJP located in Babanpur area of Mohanpur Gram Panchayat in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal was allegedly set ablaze by TMC workers today. BJP workers blamed the TMC for burning down the office calling it their ‘cheap trick’.
BJP booth secretary killed
Political killings have become a norm in the Mamata Banerjee-ruled state of West Bengal. On November 18, a horrific incident of a BJP worker being beaten to death was reported from Cooch Behar. The victim Kalachand Karmokar, who was a booth level secretary of the BJP, was beaten to death in a clash between members of two community clubs over continuing Kali Puja celebration. The state BJP alleged that Karmokar was killed by TMC goons.
Incidents of political violence have shot up in the state ahead of 2021 Assembly elections. As the BJP is trying to expand its foothold in the state, attacks on its offices and workers have become routine.