Watch: Ram Navami celebrated across Bengal; facing RSS heat, TMC joins festivities in Siliguri

To strengthen its organisation in West Bengal and 'unite' Hindus, RSS and various Sangh Parivar outfits organised several Ram Navami processions across the state which were supported by the BJP. Activists of Sangh parivar carried saffron flags and posters of Lord Ram in the processions shouting 'Jai Sri Ram' slogan. Posters were seen pledging construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. In the metropolis, 22 Ram Navami processions were organized by the Sangh Parivar members. Ram Navami processions were also taken out in Siliguri, Birbhum and some other places in the state.

"The response from the common people was very good," said a senior RSS functionary. Police said there was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state regarding Ram Navami processions.

"It is a religious festival but through this we plan to unite the Hindus against the fundamentalist forces," a RSS functionary here said. "Fundamentalist forces have increased across Bengal. Several bordering districts are witnessing huge demographic imbalance due to infiltration," Bidyut Mukherjee, the organizational secretary of RSS, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has said.

Expressing support to the RSS programme, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh had said, "We fully support such programme to celebrate Ram Navami. It will help people to unite against the anti-national forces and vote bank politics".

According to Eenadu Bangla, TMC workers also  took  a rally in Siliguri to celebrate Ramnavami.Siliguri, in Northern Bengal is a cosmopolitan city and is often known as the gateway to North-East

The rally went through prominent thoroughfares of the city including Hillkart road and Sevak road. There was one stark difference though from Ram Navami rallies organised by right wing Hindu groups. The rally while carrying Ram Navami banners reportedly only chanted slogans in favour of Mamata Banerjee. 

According to party workers quoted in the report, they organised the rally after getting green signal from the leadership and it is a way to combat the 'communal politics' unleashed by BJP and RSS.

BJP has grown from strength to strength in North Bengal. It did admirably well in the last by-polls too. Ram Navami celebration by TMC may well be a strategy to counter their growing influence

The RSS had passed a resolution at its recent Coimbatore Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha expressing concern over the 'growing Jehadi activities' and the 'declining' Hindu population in West Bengal. 

The RSS' move will be seen as BJP's attempt to make inroads in West Bengal. Earlier, the official page of West Bengal BJP posted a video on Facebook on Monday, titled ' Sabdhan Bangabashi, Pratiniyoto ei rajyo howe utheche jehadider nischinto asroysthol' i.e 'People of Bengal be alert, everyday the state is becoming a hub of jehadis'.

The video alleges that West Bengal is becoming a hub of terrorism, where separatists are trying to create ruckus in a planned way. They are doing anti-national activists, and the state government is silent. Or it can be said, just to get Muslim vote, the government is supporting an agenda to turn the Hindu-majority state into a Muslim-majority one.
It quotes statistics to show Hindu population's percentage has decreased over the years, despite mass scale migration of Hindus from erstwhile East Pakistan. According to BJP, it is a grave national security concern. The video goes on to mention cases like the attack in Kaliachak and the Burdwan blast. Read more... 
 

With inputs from PTI