Ms Moitra further said, “Neither Lord Ram nor Lord Hanuman solely belongs to the BJP. Has the party taken the lease of Hindu dharma?”.
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who is facing criticism from the BJP over her recent controversial comments on Goddess Kali, has asserted that the saffron party is not the custodian of Hindu deities and it shouldn’t teach Bengalis how to worship the goddess.
She said the BJP can’t impose its views, based on ways of worshipping deities in North India, on people of other parts of the country who have different rituals that are in vogue for the last 2,000 years.
Mahua Moitra, while speaking to a regional news channel on Thursday night, said she had acted as a “mature politician” by speaking on the issue as BJP’s attempt to “impose its agenda of Hindutva and thrusting its monolithic views” on other ethnic groups should be resisted and addressed once and for all for the sake of the country.
The Trinamool Congress MP stirred controversy on Tuesday at a media event by saying that she has every right as an individual to imagine the deity as a “meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess, as every person has his or her unique way of offering prayers” when asked about the row over a film poster of Kali smoking a cigarette.
“I think I acted as a mature politician. For long, we had avoided the issue of the BJP imposing its own version of Hinduism, which is based on established norms of North India. The party should desist from imposing it on people of other parts of the country such as West Bengal where Hindus follow their well-established rituals for centuries. Who is the BJP to teach us how to conduct puja of Goddess Kali in a particular way?”, the former investment banker said.
Ms Moitra further said, “Neither Lord Ram nor Lord Hanuman solely belongs to the BJP. Has the party taken the lease of Hindu dharma?”.
The TMC MP also called the BJP “outsider’s Party”, “It is a party of outsiders that tried to impose its Hindutva politics but was snubbed by the electorate. BJP should not teach us how to worship Maa Kali. Being a Kali bhakt (devotee), I know how to worship Kali, she said.
She further said We had been worshipping the goddess in the same way for the past 2,000 years.” She alleged that the BJP is on the back-foot over controversial remarks of its now-suspended spokesperson Nupur Sharma and was trying to deflect the attention to Mahua Moitra’s Kali comments while asserting that the saffron party will not succeed.
When asked about the FIRs filed against her in 5 states she responded saying “I challenge the respective BJP governments of these states, where FIRs have been registered, to give in writing in an affidavit to the court about offerings made to Goddess Kali.” “Can the Assam CM explain in writing to the court what offerings are made to the presiding deity of Kamakhya Temple? Can the CMs of other BJP-ruled states do the same about offerings made to Maa Kali in temples there? Is liquor not part of the offerings in these temples? BJP desperately wants to pin me down as I fiercely protest its misdeeds but I know its strategy won’t work.”
Meanwhile, Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said “people make mistakes but they can be rectified”, in comments linked by many to the controversy over her party MP Mahua Moitra’s comments on Goddess Kali during an interview.
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