I n what seemed to be a rerun of the Centre’s ‘Parakram Divas’ celebrations at Victoria Memorial last year, chief minister Mamata Banerjee today refused to go on stage during the inauguration of the Vande Bharat Express at Howrah station after a section of the crowd raised “Jai Shri Ram” slogans.

The inaugural programme turned into a high voltage political drama as Miss Banerjee was greeted by slogans from BJP supporters when she reached near the dais. Union Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav and Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar repeatedly tried to pacify Miss Banerjee and simultaneously asked the crowd including the BJP supporters, who were on the opposite side of the platform, to stop sloganeering.

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Miss Banerjee was even seen discussing the situation with Governor CV Ananda Bose. Despite all persuasions, a visibly irked chief minister refused to step onto the stage and instead sat on a chair next to it along with the audience. Mr Vaishnav, Mr Bose, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and Dr Sarkar went to the stage from where Vanda Bharat Express was flagged off. In January 2021, Miss Banerjee had refused to speak on the occasion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary in Victoria Memorial after “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised when she went up to address the gathering.

“I think the government programme should have dignity. This is not a political programme. It doesn’t suit you to insult someone after inviting them. As a protest, I won’t speak anything,” an offended Miss Banerjee had then said. However, a much more composed chief minister maintained the dignity of the programme by beginning her speech by expressing her condolences to Mr Modi who attended the programme virtually despite losing his mother Hiraben this morning.

“Today is a sad day for you personally. It is a great loss of your personal life. I pray to God that May God give you strength and bless you so that you can love your mother with your action and activity. I convey my gratitude to you as you were supposed to West Bengal today but because of the sad demise of your mother, you could not reach but have heartily reached to us through your virtual programme. I will request to cut short this programme and take rest as you are just coming from the cremation,” said Miss Banerjee.Thanking Mr Modi for gifting a new Vande Bharat train to West Bengal, Miss Banerjee said that she was happy to see projects that were started during her tenure as Railway minister getting inaugurated. “Today is my happiest day. My dream project Joka to Taratala is being flagged off.

I am very happy that other three projects are also being inaugurated which I had started when I was the railway minister. Out of five projects, four projects are of my time. But I am very happy that now you are inaugurating them. At least those are completed. I had kept money for the pink book so that these projects are not over lapsed or stopped,” she said.During the day, the incident turned out to be a major debate between the Trinamul Congress and the BJP with the former alleging that it was pre-planned to insult Miss Banerjee and the latter justified that the slogans were linked with the party’s emotion towards the Prime Minister. Downplaying the incident, Railway minister Vaishnav said that there was nothing significant for Miss Banerjee to get offended.

“We had invited her with much affection and respect. No such incident occurred for which the chief minister could get angry. Party workers often raise slogans during a programme out of enthusiasm. We are really thankful to Miss Banerjee for gracing the occasion,” said Mr Vaishnav after a metro rail ride. Slamming the BJP, KMC mayor Firad Hakim said: “The slogans were raised only to irritate and insult our chief minister. If the Trinamul wants then we can teach the BJP supporters a lesson. We are maintaining courtesy but it seems that the BJP does not deserve any courtesy.

By raising such slogans, they are only insulting Ram and not Mamata Banerjee”. Mr Adhikari alleged that Miss Banerjee did not step on the dais as she was against sharing it with him because he had defeated her in Nandigram elections. Jai Shri Ram is not any foul or insulting thing, he said.CPI-M central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said that the slogan-shouting was mischievious on the part of the BJP cadres amid the virtual presence of the PM and in front of the chief minister. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Saugata Roy, Tinamul Congress MPs, both came down heavily on the BJP’s “distasteful politics”.