Authorities on toes as over 2,000 rallies planned in Bengal on Ram Navami

An umbrella organisation of around 20 Hindu groups has planned over 2,000 rallies across West Bengal on Ram Navami on April 6, prompting authorities to make elaborate arrangements to prevent communal violence that rocked parts of the state during the celebration of Lord Ram’s birth over the last few years.

“The next 10 days are important. We are requesting citizens to be on the alert. Nobody should fall for provocation or rumour aimed at creating communal discord,” said additional director general of police (law and order) Jawed Shamim.

On Saturday, two men were arrested in Howrah on charges of plotting communal violence.

Bikarna Naskar, a member of Sri Ram Navami Ujjapan Samity that is organising the events and includes Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliates Vishva Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Hindu Jagran Manch, said they met Shamim last week after receiving information about a conspiracy to attack their rallies at 43 locations. “If anyone attacks our rallies, we will not sit and watch,” he said.

Naskar refused to answer the question whether weapons such as tridents and swords would be carried at the rallies despite prohibitory orders.

RSS’s general secretary (South Bengal) Jishnu Basu said if police decide weapons cannot be carried, then the rule should apply to both Muharram and Ram Navami processions. He added RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideological fount, does not hold Ram Navami rallies, but large gatherings of Hindus were in the organisation’s interest. “Large gatherings of Hindus are what we watch with interest. We consider people from all faiths as Indians. People from all faiths will live in peace in India as long as Hindus are in the majority,” said Basu.

Sanjay Sashtri of the Hindu Jagran Manch said it is the government’s responsibility to ensure people’s safety during Ram Navami. “But there are bad precedents. Stones and abuses were hurled from certain places of worship. Everybody has the right to act in self defence in such scenarios.”

Opposition BJP, which is focusing on Hindutva ahead of the 2026 assembly polls, has targeted chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the run-up to Ram Navami.

Union minister and BJP state chief Sukanta Majumdar said many Ram Navami processions have been attacked in recent years when they passed by mosques. “Hindus must hold rallies this year. We know how to counter such attacks,” said Majumdar.

He accused police of harassing Hindus instead of arresting the man behind the communal violence in Malda district’s Mothabari. “I am not saying all Muslims are into this...but some have become Jihadis. Hindus must unite to overthrow Banerjee’s government in 2026,” Majumdar said in Malda after he was stopped from visiting Mothabari, where homes of some Hindus were allegedly ransacked on Thursday last.

Shabina Yasmin, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator from Mothabari, said Majumdar is not a Member of Parliament from Malda and that he came there to incite trouble.

The Bengal BJP does not organise Ram Navami rallies, but its leaders participate in them.

Paschim Banga Rajya Sanatan Bhahman Trust, which is linked with TMC, has separately put up hoardings to counter the BJP by emphasising brotherhood among Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians. Former minister Rajib Banerjee, who is the Trust’s chief adviser, accused the BJP of playing “the Hindu card” only for electoral gains and added the Trust will celebrate its foundation day on April 1 by organising rallies and pujas across Bengal. “I was in the BJP for a short while. I told them the Jai Sri Ram slogan would not work in Bengal,” said Banerjee, who joined the BJP in 2021 and left in eight months.

The rhetoric ahead of Ram Navami has sharpened against the backdrop of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s call asking his party to ignore Muslims, who accounted for around 27% of Bengal’s population in 2011, and focus entirely on Hindu voters for the 2026 polls. He has maintained that the BJP, which secured 38.7 % votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, can win in 2026 if only 10% more Hindus support the party. There has been no word from the BJP’s central leadership on Adhikari’s stand even as the state unit has focused on Hindus.

Muslims play a decisive role in at least 120 of Bengal’s 294 assembly seats. The BJP could win only 75 of them in 2021 when the party fielded nine Muslim candidates, but none won.