India: BJP Stages Protest Against TMC Parliamentarian’s Goddess Kali Remarks

West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress Party parliamentarian Mahua Moitra caused outrage when she chimed in on a controversial movie poster depicting the Goddess Kali smoking a cigarette and holding an LGBTQ flag. Moitra said that, for her, Kali was a meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess.

Upping the ante against Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) parliamentarian Mahua Moitra over her remarks concerning the Goddess Kali, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a large protest in the Indian state of West Bengal on Saturday.

Leading the female-led protest in the Bowbazar area of the state, the president of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha (women’s wing), Tanuja Chakraborty, accused state police of inaction.

"We demand the police should take action against Mahua Moitra. We lodged a complaint on July 6. Why did they not take any action against her? Police are acting as TMC's men," she said while talking to the press.

Protesters also set Moitra’s effigy ablaze in front of Bowbazar police station.

Controversy Over Moitra's Remark

TMC parliamentarian Moitra came under criticism earlier this month when she said that she understands Goddess Kali to be a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess.

She made the statement while speaking about a controversial poster of a movie by the Madurai-born and Toronto-based filmmaker Leena Manimekalai in which Goddess Kali is depicted as a woman smoking a cigarette and holding a LGBTQ flag.

"Kali, to me, is a meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess. You have the freedom to imagine your goddess. There are some places where whiskey is offered to the gods and in some other places it would be blasphemy," Moitra said.

Her statement invited ire from the BJP, as well as some Hindu groups, with numerous police complaints filed against the lawmaker.

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