A game of postcards is on in West Bengal. While the BJP is planning to send 10 lakh postcards with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ written on them to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday sent 10,000 postcards with Vande Mataram on them to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Workers of the ruling TMC and locals of Dum Dum area in Kolkata sent postcards to the PM’s address in New Delhi. The postcards had ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Jai Bangla’ written on them.
D Banerjee, chairman of south Dum Dum Municipality, said that the people of the area wanted to show what is on their minds.
“We wanted to show what’s in minds of people. We don’t want to go and shout before his [PM Modi’s] vehicle,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
The postcard war started alongside the political violence in West Bengal during the Lok Sabha elections 2019.
On 16 May, three days before the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, BJP Bengal announced that it will send 10 lakh post cards with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ written on them by people to Mamata Banerjee.
The call of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a political tool for the BJP, which has been repeatedly targeting the Mamata government for allegedly creating hurdles in the way of Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja celebrations.
At a rally in Bengal’s Mathurapur, PM Modi had raised the religious issue saying that “chanting of Jai Shri Ram has become a crime in Bengal”.
BJP president Amit Shah, too, had challenged Banerjee to arrest him for saying ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
On Monday, BJP MP from Barrackpore Arjun Singh began preparations to hand 10 lakh ‘Jai Shri Ram’ postcards to Banerjee ahead of her visit to Kanchrapara.
The slogan has generated political controversy in Bengal, with Banerjee reportedly seen getting down from her vehicle to confront people who chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
In a video that went viral on social media, Banerjee said that the people chanting the Jai Shri Ram slogans were Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) people and “outsiders”.
“These are all outsiders and BJP people. They are criminals and were abusing me. They are not from Bengal,” Banerjee told ANI.