KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday stayed a single-judge's order allowing the CPI(M) to set up its bookstall during Durga Puja at Bongaon along Jessore Road in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge and Justice Shabbar Rashidi passed the order following an appeal by the state government challenging the single bench’s order on Thursday in a petition filed by the CPI(M).
The CPI(M) had alleged that the state was preventing it from setting up a bookstall selling Marxist and progressive literary works near its party office in Bongaon.
Advocate Shamim Ahammed, appearing for the CPI(M), pointed out that many people had erected stalls in the same locality, but only CPI(M) members were being obstructed. He further said that many of these stalls were operating without proper approval.
To this, the Chief Justice questioned the justification, saying, “Can there be any justification?... Just because many thieves are roaming around, I [CPI(M)] will not be caught?”
The CPI(M) also said it was its fundamental duty to disseminate knowledge and information through literature and books.
Additional Advocate General Billwadal Bhattacharyya, appearing for the state, said that CPI(M) members were encroaching on public land by erecting their stall and could not file a petition to uphold their fundamental rights in the case.
“It is the responsibility of police officials to prevent public nuisance,” the Additional Advocate General said during the hearing.
The division bench stayed the operation of the CPI(M) bookstall for the remaining days of Durga Puja.
The next hearing of the case is scheduled for January 21.
The single bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya on Thursday had allowed the party to set up its bookstalls during the ongoing Durga Puja festivities in Bongaon.
On Thursday, while hearing the case, the High Court had ruled that the CPI(M) could set up its bookstall within 100 metres of its office along Jessore Road in Bongaon, North 24 Parganas district.
The court had also directed the state government to make adequate police arrangements at the Bongaon Durga Puja festival site to maintain law and order. The district’s Superintendent of Police was also asked to submit a report in this regard to the court.
Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya issued the directives while hearing the petition challenging the denial of permission for temporary stalls selling mainly Marxist and progressive literary works during Durga Puja in Bongaon.
The CPI(M)’s cultural wings traditionally set up bookstalls near pandals across West Bengal during Durga Puja.
Triggering a political slugfest in September, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had asked Durga Puja committees not to allow CPI(M) bookstalls near pandals if they used the term ‘Sharodotsav’ to describe the festivities, arguing that it diminished the religious character of ‘Durga Puja’.
Speaking in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on September 10, Suvendu had asked Durga Puja committees across the state not to allow CPI(M) bookstalls outside pandals if the party referred to the festival as ‘Sharodotsav’ instead of ‘Durga Puja’, saying the term minimised its religious character.
Suvendu had accused sections of the Left of selectively targeting ‘Sanatan Dharma’ and the saffron colour, and urged puja committees to prevent such bookstalls from operating.
“A section of professors, who are so-called Leftists, are attacking ‘Sanatanis’. They are selectively targeting the saffron colour. I would ask all Durga Puja committees that if the Communists write ‘Sharodotsav’ (autumn festival) instead of ‘Durga Puja’ at the bookstalls they set up, they should not be allowed to operate,” he had said.
The CPI(M) and its affiliates set up bookstalls near Durga Puja pandals every year, selling Marxist and progressive literature, party publications and other books while using the festival to reach out to people.
In 1954, the first such CPI(M)-associated bookstall was set up in Park Circus on the initiative of veteran Communist leader Muzaffar Ahmed.
After the Left Front’s defeat in 2011, such red-cloth stalls became less common during the subsequent Trinamool Congress regime in the state, though they continued to be organised at select locations.
Incidents of attacks on CPI(M) bookstalls in various parts of the state were reported on Friday.
A bookstall set up by the CPI(M) in North 24 Parganas was damaged and set ablaze by unidentified people on the night of October 15, party sources said on Friday.
Located at Charapool intersection in the Palashi Majhipara area of Bijpur, the stall escaped extensive damage after local residents stepped in to douse the fire, according to the party.
At the Kamardanga Durga Puja committee in Kolkata’s Entally area, a flex banner carrying the slogan ‘Bam Badh’ (slay the Left) was put up, preventing the setting up of a CPI(M) stall near the puja pandal.
The committee accused the Left of aiding anti-national forces and claimed that local people opposed the move.
Similar incidents of vandalism and obstruction were reported at Palta Shantinagar in the Noapara Assembly constituency, as well as in parts of Kolkata, Jorabagan, Shibpur and Kulpi in South 24 Parganas.