BJP not custodian of Hindu deities, shouldn’t teach Bengalis about Goddess Kali: Mahua Moitra

Kolkata:  Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who has been facing flak from the BJP over her recent controversial comments on Goddess Kali, has asserted that the saffron party is not the custodian of Hindu deities and it shouldn’t teach Bengalis how to worship the goddess.
She said the BJP can’t impose its views, based on ways of worshipping deities in North India, on people of other parts of the country who have different rituals that are in vogue for the last 2,000 years.
Moitra, while speaking to a Bengali news channel on Thursday night, said she had acted as a “mature politician” by speaking on the issue as BJP’s attempt to “impose its agenda of Hindutva and thrusting its monolithic views” on other ethnic groups should be resisted and addressed once and for all for the sake of the country.
Also Read Kali row: Trinamool not to take onus of FIRs against Mahua Moitra The senior Trinamool Congress leader had stirred controversy on Tuesday at a conclave organised by a media house by saying that she has every right as an individual to imagine the deity as a “meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess, as every person has his or her unique way of offering prayers”, when asked about the row over a film poster of Kali holding a cigarette.
“I think I acted as a mature politician. For long, we had avoided the issue of BJP imposing its own version of Hinduism, which is based on established norms of North India. The party should desist from imposing it on people of other parts of the country such as West Bengal where Hindus follow their well-established rituals for centuries. Who is the BJP to teach us how to conduct puja of Goddess Kali in a particular way?” she said.
“Neither Lord Ram nor Lord Hanuman solely belongs to the BJP. Has the party taken the lease of Hindu dharma?” she said.