Nupur Sharma denigrated Prophet, I celebrated Goddess, says Mahua Moitra

NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Mahua Moitra -- who has a plethora of police cases filed against her over her remark on Goddess Kali that has offended the BJP -- on Wednesday said she stands by her comment and challenged the party to prove her wrong. The BJP, she said, “is trying to impose a monolithic, patriarchal, Brahminical, North Indian idea of my religion.” “I challenge the BJP to prove me wrong. Anywhere in Bengal where they file a case, there will be a Kali temple within 5 km where the goddess is worshipped thus,” she told NDTV. Citing the Kaal Bhairav temple of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, and the Kamakhya temple of Assam, she dared the BJP governments of the two states to file affidavits contradicting her. One of the police cases filed against her is in Bhopal. In a recent interview,

Moitra had said she had every right as an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a “meateating and alcohol-accepting goddess” as every person has the right to worship God in their own way.

As her comment set off outrage in the BJP camp and the Bengal BJP called for her arrest, she tweeted: “Bring it on BJP! Am a Kali worshipper. I am not afraid of anything. Not your ignoramuses. Not your goons.

Not your police. And most certainly not your trolls. Truth doesn’t need back up forces”.

On Wednesday, she said it was just BJP gameplan to divert attention from the controversy over Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Mohammad. The difference, she said, was that “Nupur Sharma denigrated the Prophet. I celebrated Goddess Kali”. Mahua Moitra’s party, TMC, has distanced itself from the controversy.