Concerned at the steady proliferation of Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress and its so-called centrist parent Congress have started falling back on soft Hindutva syllabus to woo back a steadily alienating Hindu electorate.
The trend tends to get more discernible in Birbhum district — where the BJP is engaged in a bitter dogfight with Trinamool strong-man Anubrata Mandal — with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announcing a flurry of benevolent projects for ancient Hindu temples.
The Chief Minister has announced release of several crores for development of Kankhalitala Kali Temple one of the 51 Shakti Peethas, Kalighat where “we have taken a lot of measures to give the temple a new look.” Shakti Peethas are sacred places associated with Goddess Sati — the wife of Lord Shiva — whose Kankali or waist fell here after Lord Vishnu cut it into pieces to save the Creation from the wrath of her grieving husband.
Banerjee’s announcement came days after one of the most talked about Trinamool leaders and Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal announced a long march with 25,000 sadhus. He said “It is for the betterment of the Hindus in general and the Sadhus samaj in particular that I will take out this march.”
In 2017 Mandal had organized Hanuman Puja in a big manner after the BJP’s grand celebration of Ramnavami Day by taking out a huge rally in Birbhum.
Similar rallies were taken out in other parts of the State also. To counter BJP’s influence in Howrah State Minister and former India player Laxmi Ratan Shukla took out his own rally on the Ramnavami Day.
Meanwhile, not to fall behind the Congress has quickly clung on to the soft Hindutva line by taking out an impressive rally of Pandas or priests at Tara Peeth another Hindu Pilgrimage associated with Goddess Tara — an incarnation of Kali — also in Birbhum.
This time the Congress demanded State allowance for the priests.
The Congress leadership said “if Imams can be given monthly allowance why a similar arrangement cannot be done for the Pandas of Tara Peeth.”
Though the Pradesh Congress leaders refused a public comment on the development privately they said “the way the Trinamool Congress is blatantly and blindly pursuing minoritism and the way the BJP is getting benefited by its act there is no other way but to appeal to the people in a manner which had long seized to be in practice in Bengal.”