Railway ad with Mamata in Hijab sparks off row

Kolkata, Sep 11: Nearly two months ago, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee filed an FIR against a shoe-maker for wrongfully using her image. Now, the Trinamool Congress chief faces fire over a railways ad featuring her wearing a hizab offering Namaz.

The Railway ad for the Sep 9 foundation laying ceremony of a double line from Prinsep Ghat station to Tata station features a picture of Mamata Banerjee wearing a hijab and offering Namaz.

Besides this, the ad that portrays the railways' development projects as Eid gifts contains Islamic motifs such as a crescent moon, a star and the outlines of a mosque in the background.

The print advertisement is now raising eyebrows as it is being seen as an attempt by the Trinamool supremo to capture Muslim votes ahead of West Bengal polls.

While political rivals such as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Left Front parties such as the CPI(M) have slammed the ad as an attempt to gain political mileage using religion, pro-Mamata Muslim leaders, on the other hand, have said that nothing was wrong with the ad.

OneIndia News