Why Mamata Banerjee’s Call To Muslims To Unite And Oust BJP From Power At An Eid Congregation Was Perverse

Even by her standards, Mamata Banerjee's blatantly political speech calling on Muslims to unite against the BJP at Kolkata’s largest Eid congregation at Red Road Saturday (April 22) marks a new low. 

Accusing the BJP government at the Centre of “changing the country’s history and Constitution”, she urged the thousands of Muslims gathered at what was supposed to be a religious congregation to take a pledge to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

Banerjee told Muslims that the BJP would not be able to return to power next year if Muslims of the country unite against the BJP. 

“It is time to decide for the country. We lose everything if democracy goes. Today they (the BJP) are changing history, they are changing the Constitution. I ask you all (Muslims) to promise to fight against them and not be scared,” she told the Eid congregation. 

“We do not want communal riots. We want peace. We do not want divisiveness. We do not want to split the country. But to those who want to split the country, let me say that today on Eid, I wish to pledge that I am ready to give up my life but I am not ready to allow anyone to split my country. I have faith in you, you have faith in me, and together we have faith in the Almighty (Allah)”, she said. 

The Bengal chief minister made a fervent plea to Muslims to stand united and warned them against attempts to split their votes. 

“There are some people who, after taking money from the BJP, say they will split Muslims votes. Let us all take a pledge. We have elections in a year to decide who will govern India. So decide for the county. Everyone who works outside Bengal should come back to vote in 2024 and form their own government. We lose everything if democracy goes,” she said.

Mamata Banerjee is well within her rights to ask Muslims to get united and vote against the BJP. She is fully entitled, as a citizen of a free country, to make such a speech. 

But her choice of the venue and occasion--an Eid congregation at the end of the holy month of Ramzan--was wholly inappropriate. 

An Eid congregation is a religious gathering where, traditionally, clerics issue appeals to fellow-Muslims to adhere to the teachings of Islam, be righteous, do good and pray for peace and well-being of mankind. 

To make a political speech at such a gathering was in bad taste and crossed all limits of propriety.

Banerjee had delivered similar political speeches at Eid congregations in the past as well. But this time, her sectarian appeal to Muslims rang out as coarse and even vulgar. 

Banerjee, of course, has been guilty of delivering blatantly political speeches and ranting against her political rivals even on Hindu religious occasions. She has done so during Hindu festivals, including ‘inauguration’ of Durga Puja pandals. 

Banerjee needs to learn appropriate conduct at religious gatherings from politicians of other states. No politician, be it from the BJP or an opposition party, would make a bald political speech and make brazen sectarian appeals at an Eid congregation in any other state.

For instance, politicians--be they from the BJP, AAP, Congress or any other party--never make a political speech at the Dussehra celebrations at Delhi’s Ram Lila Maidan. In fact, no speeches are ever delivered at such gatherings. 

Politicians of all hues visit Kumbh Melas where lakhs of Hindus congregate. But no politician has ever felt the urge to take advantage of the occasion to make a political appeal. 

But Mamata Banerjee is an exception. At this year’s Ganga Sagar Mela on Makar Sankranti (in mid-January), she lashed out at the Union Government for not providing any financial help for organising the Ganga Sagar Mela that draws a huge number of pilgrims from many parts of the country. 

Immediately after offering a puja at the Kapil Muni ashram (read about the ashram here), she told reporters that while the Union Government spends huge sums of money at the Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh, it does not spend a dime for Ganga Sagar Mela. 

As if that wasn’t enough, she went on to castigate the Union Government for withholding funds for payment of wages under the MGNREGA. 

“A true Hindu will never rant after offering puja because he or she will be in a different state of mind. A true Hindu will feel pure bliss and will have his heart filled with love and compassion after offering puja. Only someone who has not offered puja in true spirit and with complete devotion will be able to speak in a vitriolic manner after a puja and prayers,” said well-known priest Ram Kinkar Gangopadhyay. 

But if Mamata Banerjee was wrong in misusing the platform on Red Road (the Eid congregation) Saturday for her narrow political ends, the organisers of the congregation stand equally, if not more, guilty of allowing the misuse of that platform. 

The Calcutta Khilafat Committee organises the congregation and has been inviting Mamata Banerjee every year to address the congregation. And the chief minister, invariably, makes a political speech that takes away from the religiosity of the occasion. 

The Calcutta Khilafat Committee, knowing that Mamata Banerjee will invariably deliver a political speech at what would be a purely religious congregation, ought to have requested her to deliver an apolitical address or simply join the congregation in praying for peace and well-being of mankind. 

But it is apparent that the Committee made no such appeal to Mamata Banerjee. On the contrary, senior leaders of the committee who shared the dais with Mamata Banerjee were seen smiling and nodding approvingly when Mamata Banerjee made sectarian appeals to Muslims. 

Hence, from next year, the Calcutta Khilafat Committee should openly declare the congregation on Red Road, next to the Army’s Eastern Command Headquarters, as a political rally. Because that is what the Eid congregation has essentially become, thanks to Mamata Banerjee.