Politics of sloganeering, BMS take to streets to demand arrest of Sankar Prasad Datta for derogatory remark on ‘Lord Hanuman’
By Our Correspondent
Agartala, July 18, 2025
A procession organised by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), labour arm of the ruling BJP, marched through the streets of Agartala demanding arrest of former CPI (M) MP and CITU leader Sankar Prasad Datta for his inadvertent comment on Lord Hanuman, Hindu God of strength and loyalty. Sankar Prasad had likened a portrait of ‘Hanuman’ wielded by BJP supporters to a ‘thuggish’ element and the very next day a rally of BJP supporters had reached his home in Abhay Nagar area to hand over to him a portrait of the Lord and a copy of ‘Hanuman Challisha’ for enlightening himself. For his part Sankar Prasad is reported to have told the rallyists that he himself is a worshipper of Gods and Goddesses. But the matter did not end there as the BMS rallyists stopped for a long while at the post office Chaumuhuni and raised a cacophony of slogans like ‘arrest Sankar Prasad’, ‘CITU murdabad’, and the familiar ones like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jay’ and ‘Jay Sriram’. After a long bout of sloganeering that jarred upon the ears of people moving in the street, the rally moved ahead towards Motor Stand even though the state BJP or BMS could easily file a case in court or with police against Sankar Prasad for hurting religious sentiments.
Political observers however viewed the matter as an attempt to create an issue to mobilize public opinion in favour . “This is a standard tactics of all political parties as evident from Rahul Gandhi’s remark that Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma will be sent to jail during his recent visit to Assam ; in response Himanta said that the comment does not behove Rahul who himself is out on bail in a fund embezzlement case (National Herald); to buttress his point further Himanta also got many rallies and processions organised by Assam BJP to protest Rahul’s impertinent remark” said a senior political observer.
He also laughed at the stand taken by Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal on the intensive revision of voter list in Bihar and earlier in states like Telengana. “The election commission is empowered by Article 326 of the constitution and Section 21 of the representation of peoples act-1951 to conduct intensive revision and detoxify the electoral roll; this had been done in the state of Telengana before last election and 22 lakh fake, Bangladeshi , dead, shifted and duplicate voters had been delisted but this had not stood in the way of Congress victory; in Hyderabad Loksabha constituency alone, represented by MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, as many as five lakh fake voters had been dropped but Owaisi comfortably won the seat ; actually the issueless opposition is determined to run down all institutions of the country in their fight against the BJP” said the observer.
He also described the Trinamool and CPI (M) stand on the drive against deportation of Bangladeshi nationals as hypocritical , saying whenever the Centre initiates the drives against the illlegals they become ‘Bengalis’ for Trinamool and CPI (M). “Jyoti Babu himself had written an article in Peoples Democracy on the issue indirectly terming infiltration as dangerous in 1996 while Mamata Banerjee had thrown tantrums on the issue of infiltration on August 14 2005 in Loksabha and then again had spoken against the infiltrator threat in a TV interview but now Mamata and CPI (M) see Bengalis in the illegal infiltrators and this at a time when the Hindu Bengalis of Bangladesh are being continuously persecuted over the past eight decades only for their religious identity; the rank hypocrisy of these parties is simply astounding” said the observer. He added that these parties can go up to any length at the cost of national interest to protect their vote banks and they have also gleefully converted their opposition to BJP and governments run by it into opposition to the country and its vital interests and institutions.
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