‘I Respect All Religions, But Won’t Share Stage With BJP’: Mamata on Gita Event

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday delivered a fiery justification for boycotting the high-profile Bhagavad Gita recitation programme held at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground on Sunday, declaring it was impossible for her to participate because the event was organised by forces directly linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Speaking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before departing for north Bengal, Banerjee asserted that she respects all religions but cannot compromise her political ideology by attending functions orchestrated by the BJP.

The mammoth gathering, organised by Sanatan Sanskriti Sansad and attended by several lakh devotees along with top BJP leaders and seers, was widely perceived as a strategic display of Hindu cultural assertion months ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. While Governor CV Ananda Bose graced the occasion, Banerjee’s conspicuous absence triggered immediate political controversy. She countered criticism by stating that had the programme been genuinely impartial, she would have attended without hesitation, but she refused to share the stage with a party she accused of insulting Bengal’s icons.

Banerjee escalated her attack by accusing the BJP of harbouring hatred toward Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and deviating from Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of inclusivity and harmony. “My parents and my teachers in Bengal did not teach me to stand with those who are Bangla-birodhi,” she declared, framing her boycott as a principled stand against forces she claimed undermine the state’s heritage and pluralistic ethos. The Chief Minister positioned herself as a defender of Bengal’s syncretic identity against what she portrayed as the BJP’s divisive agenda.

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Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari launched a sharp counter-offensive, questioning Banerjee’s credentials as a Hindu and suggesting that skipping such a sacred event cast doubt on her personal faith. The exchange has intensified the already charged political atmosphere in West Bengal, where cultural and religious programmes are increasingly becoming battlegrounds for ideological supremacy ahead of the crucial 2026 polls.

With both sides digging in, Mamata Banerjee’s uncompromising rejection of the Gita recitation has crystallised the deepening polarisation, transforming a spiritual congregation into yet another flashpoint in the ongoing confrontation between Trinamool Congress and the BJP over identity, faith, and political ownership of Bengal’s cultural narrative.

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