'People wrongly accuse me of appeasement and I am secular in true sense,' says Mamata Banerjee

The TMC chief also flagged concerns over the ongoing SIR process, alleging harassment of people and loss of lives.

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday claimed to be “a secular in the true sense” as she laid the foundation of a shrine of Goddess Durga to counter the aggressive Hindutva of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which often accused her and her Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal of appeasing the Muslims.

“Some people accuse me of indulging in appeasement, but it is not correct. I am secular in the true sense,” Mamata said, laying the foundation of Durga Angan at New Town in Kolkata. “I attend events of all religious communities.”

The Durga Angan will be built on a 17-acre plot with an expenditure of approximately Rs 262 crore from the state exchequer. The BJP, however, alleged that the TMC government had shifted the venue for the project to a new site after succumbing to pressure from some Muslims, who had objected to the construction of the shrine at the originally chosen site.

Mamata had on April 29 and 30 inaugurated a grandiose temple of Lord Jagannatha in Digha in the Purba Medinipur district of the state. The state government had spent approximately Rs 250 crore to build the temple on 24 acres of land in the seaside town on the shores of the Bay of Bengal.

The TMC supremo said on Monday that the foundation of the temple of Mahakal or Lord Shiva, which she had promised to build in Siliguri in North Bengal, would also be laid in the second week of next month.

The chief minister said that she had already seen the land the state government had planned to allocate for the Mahakal Temple in Siliguri.

“I am giving you some good news. We will lay the foundation of the Mahakal Temple in the second week of January. I have already finalised the date in my mind during the Puja,” Mamata said after laying the foundation of Durga Angan.

The TMC supremo’s temple-construction spree is apparently aimed at taking the fizz out of the BJP’s bid to polarise the electorate in West Bengal with its aggressive Hindutva. Suvendu Adhikari, the frontrunner for the chief ministerial face of the BJP in West Bengal, has been calling for unity among the Hindus against the ‘jihadi’ Muslims. If all Hindus stand together, it will not take time to change the situation in West Bengal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said in Kolkata on Sunday, but quickly added that his organisation focuses on social, not political, change.

B L Santosh, BJP’s national general secretary (organisation), said that West Bengal was a civilisational, not a political, battleground for the saffron party and it must be won.

“You do not say anything when I visit a Gurdwara but start criticising me when I attend an Eid programme,” Mamata tacitly hit out at the BJP, which often criticised her for attending the events of the Muslims. She added that one must love all religions.

“When I visit a Gurdwara, I cover my head with a scarf. If I go (to an event) during Ramadan, why should I not (do the same)?” the chief minister said on Monday. “Today, I am here, so I have covered myself with a scarf.”

The BJP accused the TMC of opposing the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal to protect its vote bank of illegal Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. The saffron party has been alleging that the TMC has been helping illegal Muslim migrants from Bangladesh settle down in West Bengal after crossing over to India, and thus changed the demographic profile of the border districts of the state, posing a threat to the Hindus. The BJP also sought to lend credence to its allegation against the government led by Mamata by highlighting the TMC legislator Humayun Kabir’s bid to build a “Babri Mosque” in Murshidabad, although he was already suspended by the party.