Mamata Banerjee lacks ‘sanskar’, says Hema Malini over ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan

AGRA: Actor-turned-politician and Mathura MP, Hema Malini, on Thursday castigated West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, for her disparaging remarks against people raising slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and said that this showed her lack of ‘sanskar’.
Reacting to Banerjee’s response to a group of people who raised ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans in front of her car, Hema said that she failed to understand why the chief minister lost her cool. “It should be a matter of pride to raise the Jai Shri Ram slogan,” she said.
Hema was speaking to the media after laying a foundation stone for a science laboratory in RCA Girls’ PG College in Mathura. She said that Rs 50 lakh for this project was given by Rajya Sabha member and Bollywood actress Rekha.
Earlier, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj had slammed the West Bengal chief minister for her recent criticism against the chant of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ by saying that she belongs to the family of demon king Hirankashyap. Comparing Mamata with Hirankashyap, the MP alleged that the chief minister puts all those behind bars who chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ as the demon had done by putting his son behind bars and tortured him for saying ‘Jai Sri Ram’.
Another BJP leader from Delhi, Pravin Shankar Kapoor, had asked the West Bengal chief minister to chant lord Ram’s name as it would help her remove effects of bad spirits. He had also sent her a ‘Bhagwan Shri Ram Mantra’ and asked her to keep it on her table for removing the effect of bad spirits on her and make her follow the path of Ram Rajya in public service.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, the TMC chief said, “Jai Sia Ram, Jai Ram Ji Ki, Ram Naam Satya hai etc have religious and social connotations. We respect these sentiments. But BJP is using religious slogan Jai Sri Ram as their party slogan in a misconceived manner by way of mixing religion with politics (sic).”
Banerjee lost her cool on May 30 when a group of men shouted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as her motorcade was passing through North 24 Parganas district in Bhatpara area. The Bhatpara incident was the second in the past few weeks when Banerjee lost her cool over people chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
The TMC and the BJP, which won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, are involved in a bitter war of words over the use of the phrase.