Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday paid tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary and referred to several past incidents, involving prominent BJP leaders to pull up the saffron ecosystem for using Bengal's icons for "the purpose of winning elections", on a day when the Union home minister Amit Shah was in Calcutta to pay tribute to Tagore as well.

"For the purpose of winning elections, anyone can claim Santinikean is the birthplace of Rabindranath Tagore. The bust of Vidyasagar can also be vandalised for the same reason. For the purpose of election, it is possible to say a lot of things (about Tagore) by reading out a ready script or from a teleprompter," said the Bengal chief minister at a state government programme on Rabindra Jayanti.

Mamata with singer and songwriter Pratul Mukhopadhyay at the same event on Tuesday. The Telegraph

Though she did not name any leader or directly mentioned the BJP — probably she chose to refrain from making any apparent political remarks because of the solemnity of the programme — in her address, the hint was loud and clear as she stressed that love for Tagore should be from the heart, not for political reasons.

"I think, reverence or respect for Rabindranath or celebrations on his birth anniversary should come from the core of the heart.... Only then can we understand him properly," she added.

Shah reached Calcutta on Tuesday and visited Jorasanko, the birthplace of Tagore, where he paid his tribute to a bust of Tagore. In the evening, he participated in a programme organised by an organisation at Science City Auditorium where he addressed the audience on his birth anniversary.

Mamata watches the cultural programme at the Tagore event on Tuesday. The Telegraph

As Shah's visit was on an important day of Bengali calendar, Pochishe Baisakh, as Tagore's birth anniversary is referred to here, there is a growing perception that the Union home minister is trying to project the BJP as a party that has cultural ties with Bengal. Shah was in Calcutta on Poila Baisakh, the first day of Bengali year, as well.

These attempts by the BJP, an observer said, are aimed at addressing the Trinamul's criticism that the saffron party doesn't belong to Bengal and its leaders don't have any connection with Bengal's culture and history. The ruling party in Bengal has repeatedly used official communications from the BJP or its leaders to prove the saffron ecosystem's lack of understanding of Bengal, its culture and its icons, he added.

Amit Shah pays tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary at Jorasanko Thakurbari on Tuesday. Bishwarup Dutta

For example, when in December 2020, Bengal BJP's official Twitter handle tweeted in Bengali that “Visva-Bharati is Rabindranath Tagore’s birthplace”, in the run-up to the party's national president Jagat Prasad Nadda's visit, Trinamul leaders went after the BJP for not knowing even the basic information about Tagore's birthplace, which is Jorasanko in Calcutta.

Both Mamata and Abhishek had referred many times earlier to the incident of vandalisation of a bust of another Bengali polymath Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar in 2019 when a group of suspected BJP workers from a rally by then BJP national president Amit Shah entered a college and smashed the bust.

The chief minister, after mentioning the same incidents, urged the audience on Tuesday to take an oath to follow the ideology of Tagore. "Today we have to take an oath that we will take our Bengal ahead... We have to ensure that no one can distract us from the ideology of Rabindranath," she said.

Not just Mamata, the entire Trinamul establishment mounted an attack on Shah on a day he visited Bengal to offer tribute to Tagore, besides taking part in an official programme.

Ministers Partha Bhowmik and Sashi Panja sneered at Shah after his Jorasanko visit.

"It is good finally he learnt Tagore's birthplace is Jorasanko, not Santiniketan," said irrigation minister Bhowmik.

"Those who engage in divisive politics are here to pay tribute to Rabindranath Tagore. But the Gujarat model of politics will not work in Bengal" said Panja, the state women and child welfare minister.

BJP president Samik Bhattacharyya decried Trinamul comments. "There should be no politics when someone has come to pay tribute to a man like Tagore," he said.