Political tempers are flaring in West Bengal as TMC MLA from Ashoknagar, Narayan Goswami, accuses the BJP of waging war on Bengali food traditions following Bihar’s ban on public meat and fish sales. In a pointed Barasat address on February 19, he warned of BJP’s sinister plans should they gain ground in the state.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already condemned the Bihar move, eyeing it as electoral ammunition against BJP’s perceived cultural imposition. Goswami amplified the narrative, stating emphatically, ‘Fish and rice are the soul of Bengali meals. BJP in Bengal means goodbye to meat and rice.’ Labeling it a calculated agenda to transform food culture, he expressed confidence in Bengalis’ astuteness to punish the party at the polls.
Goswami also mocked PM Narendra Modi’s styling of Sri Ramakrishna as ‘Swami Paramhansa,’ viewing it as opportunistic electioneering by Modi and Shah. Amid Bengal polls, they’re clutching at local luminaries out of anger, he claimed, since the state leads India’s intellectual charge—boasting five-sixths of the nation’s Nobel prizes.
On BJP’s fortunes, he quipped that halving their 2021 tally would still be optimistic. Chanting names of Vivekananda, Paramhansa, or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu won’t rescue them, he asserted. As campaigns intensify, this fusion of diet, devotion, and democracy promises to dominate headlines, testing voter sentiments on identity and governance.