BJP workers forcibly apply sindoor on female cops

Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s personal jibe about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wife has triggered a vicious cycle of personal attacks culminating in BJP workers forcibly applying sindoor on female police officers in Hooghly’s Chinsurah, according to The Telegraph report.

The controversy erupted following Modi’s rally in Alipurduar , where he, without naming Mamata, sharply criticised her government and her Trinamool Congress regime. In response, Mamata held a press conference to counter what she called Modi’s “politicisation of Operation Sindoor”.

During the briefing, she crossed a line with a personal jibe: “Remember that every woman has respect. They take sindoor from their husbands… Modiji is talking this way. You are not every woman’s husband… why don’t you give sindoor to your Missus first?” Realising the inappropriateness of her comment, Mamata immediately apologised while blaming Modi for provoking her. “I am sorry to say this. I shouldn’t get into all this. But you are compelling us now to open our mouths,” she said.

Instead of accepting the chief minister’s apology, BJP leaders saw a political opportunity. State unit chief Sukanta Majumdar and leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari launched a coordinated retaliation that targeted not just Mamata’s alleged personal conduct but also her humble origins and socio-economic background. Majumdar, a junior Union minister, mocked her for “having grown up in a slum,” while Adhikari threatened to distribute “damning excerpts” from a controversial book about her personal life. True to his word, BJP workers distributed copies of these excerpts during protests on Friday.