West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that its leaders are using religious slogan, 'Jai Shri Ram' as their party slogan in a "misconceived manner".
Mamata took to Facebook and wrote that "some BJP supporters are trying to spread hatred ideology through one section of media - so-called BJP media and so-called fake video, fake news, misinformation and disinformation to create confusion and to suppress truth and reality."
"From Ram Mohan Roy to Vidyasagar to other great social reformers, Bengal has been a seat of harmony, progress and forward thinking. But now, the misconceived strategy of BJP is targeting Bengal in a very negative manner," she wrote.
Banerjee went on to add that she has "no problem" with any particular slogan of political parties.
"Every political party has their own slogan. My party has Jai Hind, Vande Mataram. The Left has Inquilab Zindabad. Others have different slogans. We respect each other... Jai Sia Ram, Jai Ram ji ki, Ram naam Satya hai etc have religious and social connotations. We respect these sentiments," Banerjee said.
"But BJP is using religious slogan Jai Sri Ram as their party slogan in a misconceived manner by way of mixing religion with politics. We do not respect this forcible enforcement of political slogans on others in the name of so called RSS which Bengal never accepted. This is a deliberate attempt to sell hatred ideology through vandalism and violence which we must oppose together. One can fool some people sometimes, but cannot fool all the people all the time," she added.
Banerjee later said that it is "high time that proper action is taken to restrain political workers from indulging in activities of creating unrest, chaos, violence and disruption of normal life by taking recourse to misplaced ideologies in the so called name of religion to create divide among the people."
She asserted that if "all other political parties start resorting to these sort of divisive and disruptive activities, then the entire environment would become highly vitiated and counterproductive."
She said that she will "oppose such moves of BJP very strongly."
"I appeal to people of the country and the state to give a befitting reply to hatred politics and show respect to our country's glorious culture and heritage," she added.
Banerjee had on May 30 reprimanded people chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' slogan in North 24 Parganas saying, "they are BJP people and criminals from outside the state."
Later, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh slammed Banerjee, saying that the chief minister has completely lost her mind.
On Saturday, a scuffle broke out between the police and a group of people who were allegedly raising 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans outside the residence of TMC leader and Minister for Fire department Sujit Bose in Kanchrapara.
Slogans were raised when Food Minister Jyotipriya Mallick, TMC leaders Madan Mitra, Vidyapar Taposh Roy and Nirmal Ghosh among others arrived for a meeting at Bose's residence.
The police had to resort to a mild lathi charge and a Rapid Action Force (RAF) was called at the spot.
Earlier today, newly elected BJP MP Arjun Singh said that his party will send 10 lakh postcards with 'Jai Sri Ram' written on them to the West Bengal Chief Minister and challenged her to arrest all the 10 lakh senders.
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