On a day Amit Shah’s helicopter was denied permission to land on a private plot in Baruipur, the BJP president announced his plan to arrive in Calcutta on Tuesday for a road show through the heart of the city and dared chief minister Mamata Banerjee to arrest him for chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.
“Mamatadi, I am coming to Calcutta tomorrow. If you have guts, arrest me for chanting Jai Shri Ram,” Shah said at an election rally in Canning, South 24 Parganas.
Canning is part of Joynagar Lok Sabha constituency.
Shah addressed another public meeting at Rajarhat in the Barasat parliamentary segment on Monday. At both the rallies, he chanted “Jai Shri Ram” several times.
The BJP national president was to address another meeting on Monday at Baruipur which is part of Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency. But the programme was cancelled at the last minute amid allegations that Trinamul forced the owner of a plot — which was earmarked for Shah’s chopper to land — to give written objections to the local police station.
The BJP has announced that Shah will participate in a road show to be taken out from Sahid Minar in Esplanade to Swami Vivekananda’s residence at Bidhan Sarani in Calcutta at 4pm on Tuesday. The decision was taken in the wake of the cancellation of the meeting at Baruipur.
Shah’s challenge to the Bengal chief minister has been seen as an attempt to remind the audience about a controversy over “Jai Shri Ram” chants in West Midnapore’s Chandrokona 10 days ago. A group of youths had chanted “Jai Shri Ram” at Chandrokona while the chief minister’s convoy was passing by. In a video that BJP leaders circulated widely on May 4, Mamata was seen alighting from her vehicle. “Why are you running away? They are hurling abuses,” she was heard saying.
BJP leaders cited the clip to claim that the chief minister considered “Jai Shri Ram” chants offensive. From the clip, it is not clear whether Mamata’s shouting was confined to the chants or “abuses”.
The BJP also claimed that three party activists had been “arrested”. The Telegraph, however, found out that no one had been arrested for chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.
“The Ram chants have become an emotive issue and the BJP wants to use it before the last phase of the polls. Barasat has over 34 per cent minority voters. Joynagar and Jadavpur have 47 per cent and 38 per cent minority voters, respectively. By bringing up the Ram chant issue, the BJP is trying to polarise voters,” said a political scientist.
Shah also tried to play the victim card by referring to the frequent denial of permission for his choppers to land. “Didi might try and stop me from attending rallies in Bengal but she cannot prevent the people of the state from voting for the BJP. I appeal to you all to go and vote on May 19 to topple the Trinamul government in Bengal,” Shah said.
The BJP chief promised to return the lost glory of Bengal, if the party was voted to power. “Mamatadi has turned Sonar Bangla into Kangal (poor) Bangla…. No new factory has come up in the state. No industry has been set up and only bomb making factories are mushrooming in the state under the Trinamul regime.”
Accusing the BJP chief of insulting the people of Bengal by calling them “kangal”,
Mamata told a rally: “This brainless half-educated man is saying whatever comes in his mind. He has insulted the people of Bengal by calling them kangal. People will give him a befitting reply in ballot boxes.”
