‘Mistakes can be rectified: Didi on Mahua’s ‘Kali’ view

New Delhi: Caught in a quandary over the remarks made by her party MP Mahua Moitra on Goddess Kali, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said “people make mistakes but they can be rectified”, in comments linked by many to the controversy.

“…Some people don’t see all the good work and suddenly start shouting... Negativity affects our brain cells so let’s think positively,” the West Bengal Chief Minister said at an event in Kolkata.
Mahua Moitra is facing multiple FIRs for her comments on Goddess Kali at a media event. She had been asked to react to the outrage over a film poster shared by filmmaker Leena Manimekalai featuring the Goddess smoking.

The MP had said she had every right as an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a “meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess” as every person has the right to worship God in their own way.
“If you go to Bhutan or Sikkim, for example, when they do puja, they give whisky to their god. Now, if you go to Uttar Pradesh and say that you give whisky to your god as prasad, they will say that is blasphemous,” she said. The Trinamool has distanced itself from the comments and even condemned them.

The BJP has said she should be arrested. An FIR has been filed in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, accusing her of hurting religious sentiments, and more leaders have threatened to file cases.