The BJP on Saturday taunted West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for observing the death anniversary of Hindutva ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
Senior BJP leaders in West Bengal led a massive rally in Kolkata on Saturday to mark the death anniversary of one of the pioneers of Hindutva politics in West Bengal, Mookerjee, who also founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Mookerjee was the first industries minister of the national government formed by Jawahar Lal Nehru after independence.
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh, whose inflammatory comments have resulted in him being in the headlines frequently, claimed Banerjee was finally awarding some recognition to a 'brave Bengali' (Mookerjee) after neglecting him for years.
"But we must appreciate her decision. Though it's a bit late but even then it is the right decision," said Ghosh. The BJP also raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday and declared the Central government did not forget the contribution of Mookerjee.
"Even today, Mookerjee's vision on Kashmir is the foundation of our party's vision on Kashmir," said the senior BJP leader.
The West Bengal government on Saturday for the first time observed the death anniversary of Mookerjee, who died in Kashmir on this day in 1953.
Two minsters of Banerjee's cabinet, Firad Hakim and Shovondeb Chattopadhyay, went to the Keoratola crematorium, where a statue of Mookerjee is located. That statue was recently defaced by some leftwing students activists in retaliation for the pulling down of a Lenin statue in Tripura by BJP activists.
Rahul Sinha, BJP's national secretary, said Banerjee was behind the defacement of Mookerjee's statue.
"She has now understood that if she disregards Mookerjee, she would lose considerable support. West Bengal would have been part of Bangladesh today had there not been a man like Syama Prasad Mookerjee," said Sinha.
Sinha appreciated Banerjee for observing the death anniversary of the saffron legend. "But she has done it too late. It would not wash her sin," said Sinha.
Hakim said, though the state government was paying its respects to Mookerjee for the first time, the Trinamool Congress had always respected him. "Earlier also, our party offered respects to Mookerjee. Our leaders always did it," said he.
Many Central leaders of the BJP were also present at commemorative events on Saturday and they hit the streets in unison.
Later in the day, Ghosh plans to meet with party men to discuss differences that have cropped up in the party over leadership issues and on the 'Sampark for Samarthan' campaign.
Amit Shah has deputed his close aide, Arvind Menon, to West Bengal and sort out differences over the leadership in the party. Recently party vice president, Chandra Kumar Bose, raised the issue in public over the presence of many centres of power in the West Bengal BJP, though he felt such an issue does not haunt the party's national leadership.