BJP slams Mamata Banerjee over ‘Durga Angan’ project, calls it appeasement politics
Kolkata: As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to inaugurate “Durga Angan”, a Goddess Durga temple at New Town on the northern outskirts of Kolkata later in the day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) described the initiative as yet another example of what it called the hallmark of her appeasement politics.
BJP’s Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, issued a statement on social media on Monday, claiming that after the chaos surrounding the recent event at Salt Lake Stadium showcasing Argentine football star Lionel Messi, the Chief Minister was now set to “taint the image of Goddess Durga”.
“After making a spectacle of the Messi event, Mamata Banerjee has now turned her gaze to defiling the sanctity of Maa Durga. Her so-called Durga Angan project is steeped in appeasement and fakery, the very hallmarks of her politics. It mocks the faith and beliefs of Bengali Hindus, reducing devotion to a cynical exercise in vote-bank management,” Malviya claimed in his post.
In the statement, Malviya alleged that a group of Muslim residents had protested the original site in New Town, claiming that the land was acquired from Muslims and continued to be “Muslim-origin land”.
He further alleged that following the protests, the CM panicked and abruptly halted the levelling work, despite contracts having already been awarded to Trinamool Congress (TMC)-linked contractors under what he described as familiar “cash-back arrangements”.
“Nearly Rs 10 crore has been spent so far, with nothing to show for it. A new site has now been hurriedly chosen. This land was originally earmarked for industrial units. Since no industry ever came up, the land has been conveniently grabbed. We are told there has been no official land-use conversion or change in the master plan,” Malviya claimed.
According to him, to protect what he described as a dedicated vote bank and to appease a section of minorities, the state government was forced at the eleventh hour to shift the site of the ‘Durga Angan’, even though preparations for the foundation-laying ceremony were already well underway.
“As per the earlier announcement, the Durga Angan was to be built on a Health Department-owned plot on Biswa Bangla Sarani in New Town, opposite the Westin Hotel and close to Eco Park. Preparations had been ongoing for over two months. Tenders were floated, and earth-filling work worth approximately Rs 4 crore was already executed by firms close to the TMC,” Malviya claimed.
He further alleged that a work order issued by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) on October 17 showed that contracts were awarded to Muskan Enterprise and MM Enterprise for earth-filling work near Bander Mor in New Town.
“Official documents clearly state that, through the tender process, work was approved to raise ground levels in Zone-4 and Zone-5. In parallel, preparations were underway at the same site to erect a massive stage for the foundation-laying ceremony. Yet, the site was suddenly scrapped. The government hastily shifted the foundation stone to a new location after objections from the families and members of the local minority community, questioning why public funds should be used to construct a Hindu religious structure on the land they occupy,” Malviya added.
He alleged that the governance driven by panic, appeasement overriding planning, and the wastage of crores of public money for political convenience came at the cost of faith, transparency and public trust.
