Did Lord Ram ask anyone to rally with swords, Mamata asks saffron outfits

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday lashed out at various saffron outfits in the state a day after many of them took out armed rallies on the occasion of Ram Navami. "Did Lord Ram instruct them to take out processions with pistols and swords? A section of hooligans are tarnishing the name of Lord Ram. Should we allow the administration to bow down to such goondaism?" she asked while addressing officers at an administrative meeting in South 24 Parganas district. One person had died and several policemen were injured in a clash that broke out during a Ram Navami procession in Purulia on Sunday. Trouble began when police tried to stop an armed procession taken out by Bajrang Dal activists in Beldi village under the Arsha police station. "Some over enthusiastic miscreants are roaming around with weapons. This is Bengal. This is not our culture. We detest such acts and I condemn it," Banerjee said. Saying that strict action would be taken against anyone breaking the law, she said the people of Bengal were shocked. "I have instructed the police to book all those hooligans under the Arms Act. Strong action must be taken against anyone who has broken the law. Nobody should be spared. I have instructed the DG and all SPs," she added. Reacting to Sunday's incident, Banerjee said, "It doesn't matter which religion a person follows. Even if one person has died in Purulia, it is wrong. He belongs to my family, he is a citizen of my state." "We have allowed peaceful rallies but not those where people brandish pistols and swords and forcibly enter neighbourhood of other communities and kill people," she added. With state BJP president Dilip Ghosh openly brandishing arms while attending Ram Navami celebrations, Mamata said, only "one party" had marred an otherwise peaceful celebration in the state. "We celebrate Durga puja, Kali puja and all other festivals. But we don't do it through violence, but through peace and inclusiveness. Ask the monks of Ramakrishna Mission or Bharat Sevasram Sangha if they approve of such acts?" the TMC supremo asked. Meanwhile, police in Birbhum district have booked BJP leader Locket Chatterjee under various sections of the Arms Act for brandishing a trishul while attending a Ram Navami procession in the district. Justifying her act, Chatterjee had said that the TMC government had failed to protect women in Bengal and thus women were forced to take up arms as a symbolic act of resistance. "The FIR lodged against me is politically motivated, my procession was not at all political," Chatterjee, head of BJP's Bengal women's wing, said. "I am not from Pakistan or Bangladesh, I am from Bengal and all the people who took part in procession were also from Bengal; we celebrated it [Ram Navami] happily and there was no violence in Rampurhat [a town in Birbhum]. Trident is not a weapon, it's a symbol of women's pride and it is also seen in the hands of Maa Durga," she added. Source: India Today