Published in The New York Times
Jawhar Sircar, a member of Parliament representing the Trinamool Congress, said that the B.J.P. did not understand the syncretic culture of Bengal, a region that remains Hindu and follows a social structure of “giving freedom to women.”
“The B.J.P. suffers from what we call the homogenization fever,” Mr. Sircar said. “They feel that the whole of India must be in that homogenic line of a central worship. The Ram temple signifies that. What they forget is that India is a confederation of ideas and cultures.”
