Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday played the polarisation card at an election rally when he accused Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of skipping the consecration event of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya because she feared “infiltrators from Bangladesh”.

“For several years, people of our country and devotees of Lord Shri Ram had been demanding that the Ram temple be built in Ayodhya.... and invitations were sent to them when the temple was built. Inviation was sent to Mamata didi. Her nephew (Abhishek Banerjee) was also invited to the consecration of the idol. But she did not go there (Ayodhya),” Shah told a rally in Katwa held in support of Ashim Sarkar, who is the BJP candidate of the East Burdwan Lok Sabha constituency.

“Do you know why she didn’t visit Ayodhya? It was only because she is afraid of the infiltrators,” Shah told a gathering of about 10,000 people.

Harping on the Hindutva theme, the Union home minister blamed the Congress, communists and the Trinamool Congress for delaying the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. “You tell me if it was wrong to build Ram temple in Ayodhya or not? You gave 18 seats to Modiji (in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll). He became Prime Minister and in just five years, he won the legal battle and built the temple,” Shah added.

Speaking at the rally, Sarkar endorsed Shah’s comment and said Mamata stayed away from the event as she always feared losing the support of her minority vote bank. “Mamata Banerjee was most probably afraid that attending the consecration
of the deity of Shri Ram might have offended the Bangladeshi infiltrators. So, she preferred to skip the event,” Sarkar said.

Trinamool leaders in Burdwan said by evoking sentiments over the Ram temple, Shah was playing the polarisation card to consolidate Hindu voters in favour of the BJP.

“It appears the BJP wants to tag Muslims in the state as Bangladeshi infiltrators and implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, was a ploy for that end,” a senior Trinamool leader said.

Although Shah used the polarisation card to attack Trinamool, Mamata had made it clear that she was staying away from the consecration ceremony as the “BJP was politicising it with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections”.

On the day of the Ram temple consecration, Mamata visited the Kalighat temple and walked in an “all-faith” rally in Calcutta as a mark of protest against the BJP’s bid to politicise sentiments linked to Lord Ram.

Not only Mamata but also the Congress, Left Front and many other constituents of the INDIA bloc had skipped the Ayodhya event.

“It hardly matters what Amit Shah said about Mamata Banerjee. She has greater credibility among the people of Bengal than Shah. Mamata is a symbol of communal harmony. Such divisive ploy of the BJP will boomerang,” a Trinamool leader in Calcutta said.