India, Dec. 30 -- Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday rebranded herself to be a secular politician and not an appeaser of Muslims as her detractors often allege her to be. Banerjee was speaking during the foundation stone laying ceremony of a Durga Temple named Durga Angan, a "cultural complex" that would come up at New Town in the northeastern fringes of Kolkata.

In what was being viewed as her third such attempt to cancel out the "Muslim appeaser" tag the first two being the construction of the Jagannath Temple at beach town of Digha on Bay of Bengal and Mahakal Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Siliguri, the Chief Minister said "there are some people who wrongly accuse me of appeasement which is not true," insisting "when ...