Huge row in India's Bengal after Modi opponent targets Hindu religious bodies

A MASSIVE controversy has erupted in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal after its chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a leader of the country's opposition against prime minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allegedly targeted Hindu organisations such as ISKCON, Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram Sangha, all of which are based out of the state and have huge public following.

Modi on Sunday (19) hit back at Banerjee during a rally in Bengal for the ongoing general elections, accusing her Trinamool Congress (TMC) party of crossing all limits by openly threatening those organisations. He also said that Banerjee's party was doing so to appease the minority vote bank.

"The TMC, which has intimidated and threatened the people of Bengal during elections, has crossed all limits this time. Today, in the country and the world, ISKCON, Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram Sangha are known for service and morality, but the chief minister of Bengal is openly threatening them from an open platform...They are threatening them just to appease their vote bank," Modi said.

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He also said the chief minister was claiming that the Hindu organisations were ruining the state while they have brought glory to Bengal. The Hindu nationalist leader also alleged that Banerjee publicly insulted the majority faith under pressure from Muslim fundamentalists.

The TMC leader retaliated against Modi's charges, saying they believe in the saffron of Swami Vivekananda (19th century Hindu seer) and not that of Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and a leader of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

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The controversy started on Saturday (18) when Banerjee claimed that the religious organisations were operating under the influence of the BJP. At an election rally in Hooghly district of her state which went to polls on Monday (20), she said some monks of Bharat Sevashram Sangha and Ramakrishna Mission were working under the influence of BJP leaders in Delhi.

She took the name of the Sangha's Kartik Maharaj accusing him of interfering in electoral politics and stopping her party's agents at the polling booth.

"I used to respect Bharat Sevashram Sangha. But I have been hearing the name of one Kartik Maharaj who said he will not allow Trinamool agent at the booth. I don't consider him as a monk because he is directly in politics...I have identified people who are doing this," Banerjee said.

"Why will monks get involved in this? Everyone respects Ramakrishna Mission. I know that the monks of Ramakrishna Mission do not vote. Then why do you tell others to vote for the BJP? Not everyone but some people (monks) are violating," the firebrand leader, known to be a fierce critic of Modi, added.

The chief minister also said that her government had helped Ramakrishna Mission and ISKCON in the past and gave them land.

The BJP took little time to retaliate. Amit Malviya, chief of the party's information technology cell, said the Sangha should move the court against Banerjee's remarks for maligning Hindu saints.

Kartik Maharaj said he had never said anything on agents of the chief minister's party.

A spokesperson of ISKCON denied any attempts to influence voters, The Hindu newspaper reported.

A senior monk at Ramakrishna Mission's headquarters at Belur in Bengal told the Press Trust of India, "We are pained and anguished at the insinuations... we do not wish to be implicated in any controversy... thousands of visitors from all walks of life come to our premises to pray and meditate, including the PM and the CM... everyone is same for us."

A spokesperson of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha said, "From cyclones to COVID, we have always rushed to the aid of the affected in far flung areas. We are a 107-year-old organisation and our monks run charitable health clinics, hospitals and educational institutions across the country. Neither had we ever been involved in politics nor we will be in the future," Hindustan Times reported.

While Bharat Sevashram Sangha is a Hindu religious and spiritual organisation founded in 1917 by Swami Pranavananda Maharaj, ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, is a Vaishnava Hindu religious body. Ramakrishna Mission, on the other hand, is a spiritual organisation founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1897 named after Ramakrishna Paramahansa, his mentor.