On Wednesday (March 15), West Bengal Congress leader Kamruzzaman Choudhury courted controversy by comparing the Hindu religious chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to ‘Hail Hitler.’
While reacting to a tweet by BJP spokesperson Keya Ghosh about Hindus preparing for celebrating the Ram Navami festival in the state, a rattled Chowdhury dubbed the sacred chant a ‘war cry.’
“Jai Sri Ram is the new “Hail Hitler”. A slogan of pride has been reduced to an intimidating war cry,” he had claimed. The archive of the tweet can be accessed here.
Jai Sri Ram is the new “Hail Hitler”. A slogan of Pride has been reduced to an intimidating War Cry. https://t.co/v5oAajBiAf
— Kamru Choudhury (@Kamru_Choudhury) March 15, 2023
The vicious attempt was to link ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to ‘Hail Hilter’, a Nazi chant dedicated to eulogising Adolf Hitler who oversaw the killing of over 6 million Jews.
At the time of writing, it had been over 40 hours since the tweet was posted by the Congress leader. Despite mocking the sentiments of Hindus, Kamruzzaman Choudhury or the Congress high command did not bother to offer an apology or delete the contentious tweet.
The concerted attempt to demonise ‘Jai Shri Ram’
It must be mentioned that the slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’ means ‘victory to Lord Rama’ and does not demonise any religion, let alone call for war or subjugation of adherents of other Faiths. However, it has been subjugated to a vitriolic campaign for the past several years for political gains.
This includes raking up of cases, falsely alleging weaponisation of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to commit crimes against ‘religious minorities’ in India. OpIndia has documented how the sacred Hindu chat was defamed by falsely linking it to criminal incidents.
Ahead of the 2024 polls, the Congress ecosystem is leaving no stone unturned in slandering the Hindu faith. It is aware that there will be no consequences for its bigotry as Hindus believe in peaceful co-existence. Lord Ram has been a deity who has been revered across the pantheon of Hinduism for ages.
For Congress leader Kamruzzaman Choudhury to essentially reduce the chant of Hindu reverence of Shri Ram to a ‘war cry’ (as done earlier by the likes of BBC and Wikipedia) is not just motivated by appeasement politics but also aimed at demonising the faith of the Hindu community.
It is now a clear indicator that such attempts to tarnish the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chant as a supposedly hate-filled slogan by the Congress ecosystem will continue unabated in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
