After a controversy erupted with Mamata Banerjee stepping down without a speech at the birth anniversary celebrations of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Kolkata on Saturday, CPIM and Congress have stood in support of her.

After the cultural event, dedicated to Netaji on his 125th birthday at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial, the West Bengal Chief Minister was scheduled to deliver a speech alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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However, inapposite and repeated slogans of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ coming from the crowd saw her getting visibly irritated. “I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Cultural Ministry for conducting this programme in Kolkata. But to humiliate an invitee in such a manner is not appropriate,” Banerjee said.

“I think a programme such as this should have some dignity. This is not a political programme. As a protest, I refuse to speak anything else,” she added before coming down from the podium.

Soon after a political war kicked off with BJP targetting Banerjee for her “intolerant” behaviour to an “apolitical and religious” slogan.

However, the Trinamool Congress supremo has found CPIM and Congress standing beside her in hitting the Prime Minister and BJP for destroying the sanctity of the event on Netaji – a staunch secular of his time who believed in keeping religion and politics separate.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury attacked BJP and those who shouted the ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans, saying that it was an insult to the elected Chief Minister of West Bengal.

“I can be an opposition leader to her politics but what happened at the Victoria Memorial was not required. It feels bad to see the Chief Minister being insulted like that. She was humiliated intentionally,” Chowdhury, the chief opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, said.

On the other hand, CPIM leader Mohammad Selim said, “Our political views might be different. But to hurl such inappropriate slogans at the Chief Minister in a government programme is reprehensible and ugly. It shows who had filled the seats of the programme hosted by the central government.”

However, the Bengal BJP leadership refused to see the malversation that happened on Saturday and how it could be perceived as an insult to Netaji himself.

Instead, the saffron camp maintained that by choosing to not deliver her speech, it was Mamata Banerjee who insulted Netaji. BJP insisted that those who shouted the slogans had the freedom of expression to do that.

Meanwhile, Banerjee did not leave the event. She took to her seat on the stage after vacating the podium. She continued to be a part of programme where PM Modi commemorated Netaji on his 124th birth anniversary.