BJP not the custodian of Hindu deities, shouldn’t teach Bengalis how to worship Goddess Kali: Mahua Moitra
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has asserted that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not the custodian of Hindu deities and it shouldn’t teach Bengalis how to worship goddess Kali.
While talking to a Bengali news channel, Moitra said that she had acted as a “mature politician” by speaking on the Kali remark controversy whereas BJP attempts to “impose its agenda of Hindutva and thrusting its monolithic views” on other ethnic groups and it should be resisted and addressed once and for all for the sake of the country.
The TMC leader is in the centre of a recent controversy that started when she commented on Goddess Kali at India Today Conclave on Thursday.
Mahua Moitra had said that Kali, for her, was a meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess. Moitra said this while speaking at the India Today Conclave East 2022 on July 5 in response to a controversy over a movie poster showing Goddess Kaali smoking a cigarette.
“When you go to Sikkim, you will see that they offer whiskey to goddess Kali. But if you go to Uttar Pradesh, and if you tell them that you offer whiskey to the goddess as ‘prasad’, they will call it blasphemy,” said Moitra.
Adding further, 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.
“I think I acted as a mature politician. For long, we had avoided the issue of 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?” she said.
“Neither Lord Ram nor Lord Hanuman solely belongs to the BJP. Has the party taken the lease of Hindu dharma?” she said.
Recalling how the TMC defeated the BJP in the West Bengal assembly elections last year, Moitra said, “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. 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 Moitra’s Kali comments, while asserting that the saffron party will not succeed.
On cases filed against her in different states over her remarks, Moitra said, “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,” he said.
The Trinamool Congress was quick to condemn Mahua Moitra’s remarks on Goddess Kaali.
“The comments made by @MahuaMoitra at the #IndiaTodayConclaveEast2022 and her views expressed on Goddess Kali have been made in her personal capacity and are NOT ENDORSED BY THE PARTY in ANY MANNER OR FORM. All India Trinamool Congress strongly condemns such comments,” the tweet put out by the official handle of TMC read.
The West Bengal BJP has sought the arrest of the Krishnanagar MP for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus with her contentious remarks.
(with inputs from PTI)
