Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi on Sunday prayed at Thanthania Kalibari – one of the few abodes of goddess Kali where meat is offered as ‘prasad’ – before his roadshow in Kolkata in what political circles interpreted as his emphatic signal to voters to dispel TMC‘s projection of BJP as a ‘north Indian party’ steeped in vegetarianism and uneasy with Bengal’s food habits rooted in non-vegetarian meals.Thanthania Kalibari, where the deity is worshipped as Maa Siddheshwari, is one of the oldest and most revered Kali temples of Kolkata and is believed to have been frequented by Ramakrishna Paramahansa, where he sang hymns to the goddess.CM Mamata Banerjee has led TMC’s charge that if elected to office, BJP will seek to curb the state’s meat-eating food habits and substitute them with the practice of north Indian states, where non-vegetarian meal consumption is frowned upon during religiously auspicious days.Her projection of BJP as a party of outsiders unfamiliar to Bengali values has been central to her political attacks, pushing the national party to make concerted efforts to dispel the narrative.BJP functionaries, including MP Anurag Thakur, had shared their pictures eating ‘maach-bhat’ during their campaign in Bengal.The visit of Modi, himself a vegetarian who observes fasting during Navratras, to the temple will drive the message home, BJP hopes.This practice of non-vegetarian ‘prasad’ was started by Ramakrishna Paramahansa, one of the most revered spiritual figures in the state. When he fell sick, his followers prayed at the temple for his quick recovery, serving non-vegetarian ‘prasad’ to the deity.
