Nothing has riled up Mamata Banerjee more in the past few years than the “Jai Shri Ram” slogan. Almost two years after the West Bengal chief minister refused to speak at a government event in Kolkata attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the slogan was raised, she faced the same situation during the inauguration of the Vande Bharat Express at Howrah station on Friday. The incident last year occurred at Victoria Memorial at an event organised to celebrate the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. As some people shouted “Jai Shri Ram”, an irate Banerjee refused to speak. In 2019, Banerjee confronted some suspected BJP supporters for raising “Jai Shri Ram” as her convoy passed by them. At the time, she wrote in a Facebook post, “Jai Sia Ram, Jai Ramji ki, Ram Naam Satya Hai etc have religious and social connotations. We respect these sentiments. But the BJP is using religious slogan ‘Jai Sri Ram’ as its party slogan in a misconceived manner by way of mixing religion with politics. We do not respect this forcible enforcement of political slogans on others in the name of so-called RSS which Bengal has never accepted.” On Friday, as the CM reached Howrah station platform 22 to attend the event, some BJP supporters carrying party flags and stationed at platform 23 started the sloganeering. A visibly surprised Banerjee was seen complaining to Governor CV Ananda Bose as he arrived for the programme. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other dignitaries at the event scrambled to do damage control. Vaishnaw and Union Minister of State for Education Subhash Sarkar tried to calm down BJP workers, repeatedly urging them over the loudspeaker not to raise the slogan. But the sloganeering continued and angered Banerjee even further. The CM initially refused to get up on the stage and sat on a chair beside the dais instead. When PM Modi appeared on a giant screen to flag off Vande Bharat, the CM regained her composure. Addressing the event, she offered condolences to Modi for his mother’s death. In her speech, she did not refer to the sloganeering. “Today is a sad day for you personally. It is a great loss of your personal life. May god give you strength and bless you so that you can love your mother … I convey my gratitude to you for being present here virtually as you could not come because of the sad demise of your mother. Please take rest and take care,” she told the PM. Speaking about the development projects inaugurated at the event, Banerjee said, “Today is my happiest way. My dream project, Joka to Taratala, is being flagged off. I am very happy that other projects are also being inaugurated which I started when I was the railway minister. You have also given one new train to the state. I am very happy … I also thank all the officers, ministers, MPs, MLAs and other officials for this. May god give you the strength to do your work.” Following Banerjee’s speech, PM Modi inaugurated the trains. Banerjee, Vaishnaw, and others also waved a green flag to mark the start of the Vande Bharat’s journey. Among the others present at the event were Leader of Opposition in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, and Union ministers Nisith Pramanik and John Barla. TMC hits out at BJP But the sloganeering episode sparked a political firestorm, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) accusing the BJP of “misusing ‘Jai Shri Ram’” to insult Banerjee and criticising the Centre for failing to stop the sloganeering. The episode left the BJP somewhat divided, with BJP MP SS Ahluwalia saying the slogans should not have been raised and leaders such as his fellow parliamentarian Locket Chatterjee and Adhikari defending those who did. TMC MP Sougata Roy said, “The inauguration of Vande Bharat Express was a government programme. The Centre invited her to attend it. Now BJP MPs and workers raised the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan. This is a political slogan. If aimed at her, Mamata Banerjee feels insulted. Because of this reason, she did not go to the stage and stood beside the dais. I strongly condemn this attitude of the BJP workers. We cannot tolerate the insult of Mamata Banerjee after she is invited to a government programme." TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh also criticised the Centre for allowing an incident like this to unfold at a government programme. “There is no problem with the chanting of ‘Jai Shri Ram’. But one must keep in mind the time and place of doing so. The BJP is misusing the name of Ram to disrespect Mamata Banerjee. This is not the first time it has happened.” Ashwini Vaishnaw thanked Banerjee for attending the event but added nothing had happened that warranted such a reaction from her. “We had respectfully invited Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to attend the programme and she responded to our invitation,” the Railways Minister told reporters. “There was no such issue which warranted a strong reaction from her. Workers out of excitement chant slogans. There is nothing wrong with that. But I want to thank Mamata Banerjee for gracing the event with her presence and increasing the dignity of the occasion.” SS Ahluwalia, the BJP MP from Purba Bardhaman-Durgapur, however, said that such slogans should not have been raised. "Different people think in different ways. This was a government event and in a national programme like this slogan of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ should have been raised.” But Locket Chatterjee, the parliamentarian from Hooghly, disagreed with Ahluwalia. “Our party workers started raising slogans after they saw the new train. When PM's photograph was shown on a giant screen, the sloganeering intensified. It is natural for our workers to raise such a slogan because of the emotion and the passion attached to it. There is no political connection with this.” Targeting the CM, Suvendu Adhikari said, “It is clear from her behaviour that she is haunted by her defeat in Nandigram last year and that's why she refused to share the dais with me. She had done the same thing in Kalaikunada last year during a cyclone review meeting. She indulged in a similar drama today. She cannot digest her defeat to me (from Nandigram during the Assembly elections). But I promise that she will have to endure this pain for a long time as I will ensure that she becomes a former chief minister of the state.”
