Hindu-Muslim bonhomie in Bengal during Ram Navami, BJP lays Ram mandir foundation to counter Mamata's Jagannath temple move

Kolkata: Muslims offered sweets to Hindus celebrating Ram Navami in West Bengal on Sunday, while the Bharatiya Janata Party’s leader, Suvendu Adhikari, led a ceremony for laying the foundation of a Ram Mandir to steal the thunder from Trinamool Congress supremo and chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, who built a Jagannath Mandir to blunt the saffron party’s campaign in the state.

With the assembly elections just about a year away, the BJP and other offshoots of the Sangh Parivar sought to use the Ram Navami celebrations to ramp up the Hindutva campaign in West Bengal, organising hundreds of rallies on the occasion across the state, with participants raising the “Jai Shri Ram” slogans and, in some places, even brandishing weapons.

The ruling TMC, however, was not ready to let the saffron party have a field day and deployed its leaders and workers to take out processions in several places.

The Muslims showered flower petals and offered sweets and water to the Hindus taking part in the Ram Navami processions in several places, including Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, and Durgapur.

With over 6000 police personnel deployed, the Ram Navami was celebrated peacefully, without any report of violence coming in till late in the evening.

Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly, led a Ram Navami procession to Sonachura, a village in his constituency, Nandigram, in the Purba Medinipur district of the state and presided over a ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of a Ram Mandir modelled after the newly built shrine at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

It was in Nandigram where an agitation by farmers against the proposed acquisition of land for setting up a special economic zone for chemical industries in 2007 and 2008 had set the stage for the end of the Left Front’s 34-year-long rule and the ascent of Banerjee’s party to power in 2011. Adhikari was then a key aide to Banerjee and played an important role in the TMC’s rise from the 2007-2008 agitation in Nandigram.

Sonachura, where the new Ram Mandir’s foundation was laid, was the scene of the March 2007 killing of 14 villagers, who had been protesting against the proposed land acquisition.

People take part in a religious procession on the occasion of Ram Navami, in Malda

“This is a historic and joyous occasion for all of us who hold Lord Rama’s values of righteousness, courage, and compassion close to our hearts,” Adhikari said after the foundation stone of the temple was laid by Kalpana Maity, wife of Debabrata Maity, who was among the people who were killed in 2007. Adhikari said that Debabrata was “the first Hindu martyr of Nandigram”.

The TMC, despite winning the 2021 assembly polls, had suffered a setback in Nandigram, where Banerjee had lost to Adhikari, who had jumped onto the BJP’s bandwagon a few months before.

Adhikari laid the foundation of the Ram Mandir just about three weeks before Banerjee, herself, would lead the inauguration of a grandiose temple of Lord Jagannatha at Digha, a seaside town in the Purba Medinipur district itself. The TMC hopes that the grand inauguration of the temple will blunt not only the BJP’s aggressive Hindutva campaign in West Bengal but also its allegations about appeasement of Muslims by Banerjee.

“Dharma Jar Jar, Utsav Sabar (people may have different faith, but festivals are for everyone). This is the vision of Mamata Banerjee. This is the West Bengal model. Here, Hindus and Muslims celebrate Eid and Ram Navami together, and foil divisive agendas,” Kunal Ghosh, a senior TMC leader, said, after participating in a Ram Navami procession, which had people from both communities. He criticised the BJP of trying to use religion and religious festivals for political gains.

Banerjee, herself, also greeted people on the occasion of Ram Navami.