After Jai Shri Ram, Jai Ma Kali is now caught in Bengal’s slogan war

Going a step further, Mamata’s party leaders asked in public if BJP leaders would chant Jai Ma Kali in praise of one of Bengal’s most popular deities. Their contention was that the BJP was importing north Indian culture to Bengal.

After Ram, the Hindu goddess Kali is now caught in the ongoing slogan war between the BJP and the Trinamool in Bengal.

Banerjee had said last week that her party would counter BJP’s Jai Shri Ram slogan with the Jai Hind and Jai Bangla slogans. (Twitter/@abhishekaitc)

Last week, Banerjee said her party would counter BJP’s Jai Shri Ram slogan with the Jai Hind and Jai Bangla slogans. Going a step further, her party leaders asked in public if BJP leaders would chant Jai Ma Kali in praise of one of Bengal’s most popular deities. Their contention was that the BJP was importing north Indian culture to Bengal.

Blunting Trinamool’s attack, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is in charge of Bengal, said on Tuesday, “Why should we have any problem in chanting Ma Kali’s name? We will say Jai Ma Kali, Jai Bangla, Jai Durga and also Jai Shree Ram.”

Seconding VIjayvargiya, Midnapore MP and BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh said, “We will feel proud to chant Jai Hind. This is a nationalist slogan. We will also happily chant Jai Bangla, as Bengalis in both western and eastern (Bangladesh) Bengal made it their war cry against imposition of Urdu by West Pakistan. However, will Mamata Banerjee say Jai Shree Ram?”

In a caustic remark on Tuesday, TMC youth wing chief and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the nephew of the chief minister, said, “They are taking the name of Ma Kali because Ram’s name is not so popular anymore.”