Is Mamata Banerjee arm twisting Rama Krishna Mission to legitimize her human rights abuses?

The brutality and the human rights violation of the opposition had started long back. Since the panchayat vote in West Bengal is usually a good indicator of the national elections, Lok Sabha polls slated for 2019, Mamata Banerjee, sensing anti-incumbency of her government, tried everything to scare away the opposition into submission. In the process, she unleashed the most brutal assault on opposition candidates and party members.

Twenty-six people were killed during the panchayat election. In one incident, hands and legs of a CPIM party worker and his wife were tied and both were set on fire, burnt alive. A polling officer was dragged out of his home and chopped into pieces. So devastating was the fear effect that almost in one-third of the seats, the opposition candidates could not file nomination papers and Mamata Banerjee's party won uncontested.

The killings of opposition party workers particularly from BJP went unabated even after the end of the panchayat elections. Two opposition Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) workers were picked up and were summarily hanged to death by members of the ruling party. Behind their t-shirt was scribbled the reason why he was hanged.

Apart from the recent violence, Mamata Banerjee has a long history of human rights violations. Under her watch, several small and large anti-Hindu pogroms by the Jihadi elements and Islamists have been taken place. The home ministry of the state of West Bengal, which she heads has turned a blind eye in most of these cases while Hindu exodus has continued unabated. To make matters worse for the Hindus across the state, and to insult Hindu sentiments by pandering to Jihadi demands, her government banned Durga Puja immersion on time according to scriptures. This to ensure that Hindus can never dare to express themselves as Hindus again.

While these mass killings and horrific deaths have outraged the Hindu American and Indian American community, recent reports that she will be in Chicago on August 26, 2018, to attend the 125th Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's Speech in the Parliament of Religions has shocked the community. It has been reported that the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago, headed by the Rama Krishna Mission (RKM) group is behind the invitation.

Inside reports have now surfaced that RKM was arm-twisted to send her the invite. Same nature of bulldozing the democracy has been witnessed here too where report says, she has threatened RK Mission to ensure that not only she is invited to Chicago but also have a chance of a photo-op with the Mayor of Chicago, Governor of the State of Illinois and Senator Durbin which she can then use to give political legitimacy to her human rights abuses.

Chicago is considered a holy place by most Hindu Americans. Swami Vivekananda had introduced Hinduism to the world and declared him as a proud Hindu through his 1893 Parliament of World Religions address. Rama Krishna Paramhansa was the Guru of Swami Vivekananda. The Indian American community is deeply outraged over the fact that Mamata who has not only indulged in gross human rights violations but also has been a rabid Hindu phobic. Under her watch, the name of Lord Ram has been wiped out from the school textbooks and has been replaced with Rong.

The values and the principles that Swami Vivekananda embodied are in direct conflict with what Mamata Banerjee represents. While she is planning to use the RKM platform to establish her Hindu credentials, the constant atrocities by her government, targeting the Hindus prove that she wants to pay just lip service to the safety and welfare of the Hindu community.

Similarly, her human rights violations are in direct conflict with the ethos of the United States and the democratic principles that the country prides itself on. Many members of the Indian American and the Hindu American community is feeling really dejected and insulted by this atrocious attack on RK Mission and principals of Swami Vivekananda as a whole and strongly want their elected representatives in United States, the oldest democracy to avoid meeting someone who has the shadiest human rights record in the biggest democracy of the world, India.

Will the world overlook Mamata Banerjee's record of being a prolonged human rights violator, only time will tell?