Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress opened a new party office at Bolpur which has a separate ‘Thakur Ghar’, a puja room, with several deities, including a replica of Ajmer Sharif Dargah installed in it. However, this step hasn’t gone down too well with the BJP that has accused the TMC of using it as a cover for their ‘minority appeasement’ policy.
TMC’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal reportedly said that TMC has equal respect for all religions and hence they placed the replica of Ajmer Sharif Dargah in the puja room along with that of Goddess Kali and other deities. He also said that his own office also has a replica of Data Saheb, a Sufi saint of Birbhum.
However, it drew a lot of flak from the BJP. BJP’s Birbhum district president Ramkrishna Roy called this ‘drama’ and said that the TMC is trying to mislead the people since they are upset with TMC’s ‘minority appeasement’ policy. Banerjee had earlier said she would skip the NITI Aayog meet since it fell on Eid, while being accused of taking to ‘soft Hindutva’ approach on lines of Congress President Rahul Gandhi. In March, this year, she did a u-turn on Ram Navami celebrations by overturning the initial orders of banning the display of arms by allowing ‘restricted’ display of arms in the procession.
Interestingly, other than deities, photographs of Mamata Banerjee and some of her paintings will also adorn the newly inaugurated office.
